Dental News - Implanted eyetooth helps blind patient to see again

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute press release

Wed. 23 September 2009

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MIAMI, FL, USA: Miss Sharron Thorton, a 60-year-old patient from the US, has recovered her sight after surgeons in Miami implanted one of her teeth in the eye. In a first-in-the-US surgical procedure at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, her eyetooth was implanted as a base to hold a prosthetic lens. The patient was blinded in 2000 by effects of the Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a severe adverse reaction to common drugs causing burning, blistering, and sloughing of skin and involved tissue. It also frequently causes blindness and results in 100,000 deaths per year worldwide.

Dr Victor L. Perez, associate professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and his interdisciplinary team performed a modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (MOOKP), a complex surgical technique, which has so far only been available in a limited number of eye centres in Europe and Asia. Developed by the Italian ophthalmologist Prof. Benedetto Strampelli in the 1960s, MOOKP has proven effective as a solution to end-stage corneal disease where severe corneal scarring blocks vision and corneal transplants are no longer an option but the eye’s internal structures and optic nerve remain healthy.

“For certain patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure ‘of last resort’ implants the patient’s tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision,” explained Dr Perez.

In MOOKP, an extracted tooth and surrounding bone are shaved and sculpted, and a hole is drilled to insert an optical cylinder lens. In order to bond the tooth and lens as a bio-integrated unit, they are implanted under the patient’s skin in the cheek or shoulder, while the eye specialist prepares the surface of the eye for implantation of the prosthesis by removing scar tissue surrounding the damaged cornea.

About one month later, mucous material is collected from the inside of the patient’s cheek and used to cover and rehabilitate the surface of the damaged eye. In the final phase, the prosthesis is removed from the cheek or shoulder and implanted in the eye. The prosthesis is aligned with the centre of the eye, and a hole is made in the mucosa for the prosthetic lens, which protrudes slightly from the eye and enables light to re-enter the eye allowing the patient to see again.

“The prodecure will help countless of people in the US to regain sight,” Dr Eduardo C. Alfonso, chairman of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute said. “Thanks to the work of Dr Perez’s team, patients in the United States now have access to this complex surgical technique.”

(Edited by Claudia Salwiczek, DTI)

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