A 60-YEAR-OLD US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said today.
Sharron "Kay" Thornton, from the southern US state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 when she came down with a case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that scarred her cornea, according to the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
For patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure "implants the patient's tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision", said Thornton's surgeon Victor Perez.
In the procedure - which was pioneered in Italy but was a first in the US - the medical team extracted Ms Thornton's canine or "eyetooth" and surrounding bone, shaved and sculpted it, and drilled a hole into it to insert an optical cylinder lens.
The tooth and the lens are implanted under the patient's skin in the cheek or shoulder for two months so they can bond, then they are carefully implanted in the center of the eye after a series of procedures to prepare the socket.
"A hole is made in the mucosa for the prosthetic lens, which protrudes slightly from the eye and enables light to re-enter the eye allowing the patient to see once again," the Eye Institute said.
Following a series of operations, medical personnel removed the bandages from Ms Thornton's eyes two weeks ago.
She was able to recognize objects and faces a few hours later, and 15 days later she was able to read newspapers, the Eye Institute said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my seven youngest grandchildren for the first time," said Ms Thornton.
"We take sight for granted, not realizing that it can be lost at any moment," the grateful patient said. "This truly is a miracle."
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