Blind Woman Sees With 'Tooth-in-Eye' Surgery

[kas125]

Forget about an eye for an eye -- doctors in Florida have taken a blind woman's tooth, and used it to help restore her vision.

A team of specialists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced Wednesday that they are the first surgeons in the United States to restore a person's sight by using a tooth. The procedure is formally called modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (or MOOKP).

Sharron "Kay" Thornton, 60, went blind nine years ago from a rare disorder called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The disorder left the surface of her eyes so severely scarred she was legally blind. But doctors determined the inside of her eyes were still functional enough that she might one day see with the help of MOOKP.

"This is a patient where the surface of the eye is totally damaged -- no wetness, no tears," said Dr. Victor L. Perez, the ophthalmologist at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami who operated on Thornton. "So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye."

the rest is at - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Technology/woman-regains-vision-tooth-implanted-eye/story?id=8595589

[Lucinda]

1. Thanks for posting this...I passed it along to a friend

:)

[kas125]

2. You're welcome! I thought it was fascinating. n/t

[Divine Discontent]

3. simply amazing stuff. good for her, and I hope it becomes common enough that the costs come down so

that the insurance GIANTS will stop saying deny deny deny (on all types of procedures that seem to work but are so new they're quite expensive). Fortunately for this patient, they seemed to have changed their mind.