Canadian surgeons implant teeth in the eye to restore viewing

Three blind Canadians can soon see again thanks to a startling source: their teeth.

Yes, you read it right. Over the past week, patients’ trio underwent the first “tooth in the eye” operations of Canada. While it may sound like something directly from scientific fabrications, this jaw fall procedure has been restoring the appearance to other parts of the world for decades.

“It’s a rare operation that most people have not heard of, even if you are a surgeon,” Dr. Greg Moloney, an ophthalmologist and surgeon at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver, told the Canadian transmission corporation (CBC).

Science

The procedure, called osteo-ODONTO keratoprosteis (OOCP), uses a patient’s own tooth to create a supporting structure for an artificial cornea.

The operation is divided into two parts. First, Moloney and its team remove a healthy tooth from each patient, shave it in a rectangle, pierce a hole and pop a plastic optical lens inside. The tooth then takes a temporary house on the patient’s site, where it will stay for about three months.

“(Tooth) There is no connective tissue that I can actually pass a stitch to connect it to the eye of the eye,” Moloney told CTV News. “So the purpose of its implantation for three months is for it to win the supporting tissue layer.”

During the same procedure, the moloney prepares the eye by removing the upper layer of the eye surface and replacing it with a soft tissue grafting from the inside of the patient. This grafting takes several months to heal so that it can support the implant.

So far, Moloney says all initial procedures have gone smoothly, and patients will be monitored closely over the coming months.

When it is time for the second surgery, the tooth will be removed from the cheek and placed in the eye of the eye.

Moloney and its team will attract grafting, remove the iris and damaged lenses and sew the tooth (with its new optical lenses) in the eyes. The grafting will be removed again over the eyes, leaving a small hole for the lenses to watch.

The end result is a pink eye with a small black circle through which the patient can finally see again.

Eyes

A tooth may seem like an impossible candidate for eye surgery, but it is actually the perfect adjustment.

“(Teeth) contain dentin, which is the ideal tissue to accommodate a plastic lens without the body that rejects it,” Moloney explained for everyday scan. Plus, India from the site knows the tooth, making the whole process softer.

But don’t get too excited too much-this procedure is not without risk. “With any ocular operation of any kind, there is a chance that we can introduce infection and lose our entire vision,” Moloney CBC told.

It is also not meant for everyone. Surgery is often an option of the latest gap for people with corneal blindness in the front of the eyes caused by conjunctive scarring from autoimmune diseases, chemical burns and other traumas, but still have healthy retina and optical nerves.

Despite the risks, the procedure has been restoring the appearance for decades to at least 10 countries with a high degree of success. A 2022 study by Italy found that, 27 years after surgery, 94% of patients still had vision.

Moloney himself has made seven successful teeth in eye surgeries in Australia before bringing his talent to Canada. “The risk reward report for these patients, when they do not have a vision at all, it’s worth it, we think,” he said.

A gambling that changes life

Brent Chapman has suffered 50 operations over the past 20 years, all aiming to restore his gaze, and he hopes this is his last.

The 33-year-old Northern Vancouver massage therapist is blind to both eyes due to Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare autoimmune reaction caused by an ibuprofen dose he received after a basketball game when he was only 13 years old.

Although some of the operations he had given a temporary partial appearance, he always faded.

“When I return it, you know, it would be a kind of this great rush,” he told CBC. “Then I would lose it again and be heartbroken, and I sank into this depression.”

This time, Chapman hopes things will be different. When his doctor first raised his tooth in his eye surgery, he was hesitant. But after talking to an Australian woman who had gone through the same procedure for extraordinary success, he was sold.

“She had been completely blind for 20 years, and now it’s skiing in the snow,” he said. Today, Chapman is dreaming of shooting hoops again and traveling to the world.

Part of Chapman of a group of six patients in a pilot program at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital. If the operations go well, Moloney and his team plan to open Health Canada for funding to open the first OOCP country clinic.

“If we are successful in taking this and running and stabilizing in Vancouver, then we will be the only active center of North America for the operation,” he said.