Tooth-in-eye surgery: Gail Lane, who went blind a decade ago, had the first part of her surgery towards the end of February at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver, as per a Facebook post by the hospital.
Known as “tooth-in-eye surgery”, the procedure involves removing a patient’s tooth, typically the canine, placing a plastic optical lens inside it, and then implanting the entire structure into the eye, CBC reported.
“It is a rare operation that most people have not heard of, even if you are an eye surgeon,” Dr Greg Moloney, an ophthalmologist and surgeon at the hospital, told the CBC.
“The tooth doesn’t have any connective tissue that I can actually pass a suture through to connect it to the eyeball. So the point of implanting it for three months is for it to gain the layer of supporting tissue,” Dr. Moloney told CTV News.
He added that the patient’s eye was prepared for the implant by removing the top layer of its surface and replacing it with a soft tissue graft from inside his cheek. This graft would heal in a few months before the “tooth” can be implanted.
The doctors first extracted one of Lane’s teeth, shaped it into a rectangle, drilled a hole, and inserted a plastic optical lens inside. The modified tooth was then placed in Lane’s cheek, where it will remain for approximately three months, the report stated.
The final phase will take place in a few months later, the doctors will remove the tooth from the cheek and implant it into the front of the eye, beneath the cheek tissue. The result will be a pink-coloured eye with a small black circle through which the patient can see. Due to the complexity of the surgery, it is only performed on one eye, according to Lane’s doctors, the CBC reported.
Talking about the surgery to CTV News, Lane expressed the pain of being unable to see herself. “I haven’t seen myself for 10 years. If I’m fortunate enough to get some sight back, there will be wonderful things to see,” she said.
This groundbreaking procedure, funded in part by St. Paul’s Foundation, could provide hope for individuals suffering from corneal blindness worldwide.
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