Tooth used to restore eyesight in radical surgery

The operation – osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis – is used to restore vision in the most severe cases of corneal and ocular surface damage, and was recently performed for the first time in the southern hisphere by two doctors at Sydney Eye Hospital.The complicated procedure begins with the roval of the patient’s tooth, in which a hole is drilled so that a plastic lens can be placed inside. The tooth is then sewn into the patient’s cheek, where it grows tissue over a period of several months.“We rely on the tooth to gain its own blood and tissue supply so when it is roved from the mouth, what you have essentially is a living complex,” Dr Shannon Webber, one of the doctors who performed the procedure, told 60 Minutes.At the same time, the entire inner surface of the eyelids, corneal surface and any scar tissue in the eye is roved, and replaced with a flap of skin and mucus mbrane from inside the mouth which is sewn over the eyeball.{{image2-a:c-w:550}}After several months, the tooth is roved from the cheek and sewn over the patient’s blind eye and covered again with the mucus mbrane skin. A hole is then cut into the skin to allow light to pass through the lens, onto the patient’s macular, and allow it to function in much the same way as a healthy cornea.Webber, an oral and maxillofacial specialist, and oculoplastic surgeon Dr Greg Moloney, trained extensively in Germany to learn the procedure and now expect to perform the operation two or three times a year in Australia.“It’s pretty incredible and something we have been building towards for several years. So to have done it successfully on two occasions is extrely satisfying. Both patients are doing really well,” Webber said.Watch the video here.