33-year old Chapman, who is blind in both eyes, was one of three Canadians undergoing osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis (OOKP) — or as it’s more commonly known, tooth-in-eye surgery.
How does it work?
Many would be confused to see teeth being used to restore sight but doctors told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that the procedure has been performed for several decades in 10 countries, including the UK and Australia. A 2022 study in Italy found that, on average, 27 years after surgery, 94% of patients could still see.
Dr. Greg Moloney, an ophthalmologist and surgeon at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver told CBC that the procedure involves that removal of a patient’s tooth, usually the canine, and installation of a plastic optical lens inside it.
This modified tooth is implanted in her cheek for three months. He said that because teeth have dentine, which is the hardest substance the body produces. Dentine is the ideal casing to bridge the plastic lens and the patient’s eye, he added.
“There is no risk of rejection, because we’re using part of the patient’s own body,” he said,
A few months after the procedure, doctors extract the tooth from the cheek and implant it beneath the cheek tissue in the front of the eye. The result is a pink-tinted eye with a small black circle, allowing the patient to see. Due to the complexity of the surgery, it is only performed on one eye.
“With any ocular surgery of any kind, there’s a chance that we could introduce infection and lose all our vision,” he added.
About the patient
Brent Chapman told to CBC that he worked as massage therapist says and his vision was fine until he turned 13 years old. One day after playing basketball at school, he took some which triggered a rare auto-immune reaction known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
This put him in a coma for 27 days with severe burns all over his body, including his eyes. After he recovered, his sight was lost. In the next 20 years, he underwent over 50 surgeries, including 10 corneal implants.
He said some of them worked but only for a few years or months before his sight was lost again.
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