Pioneering French surgery restores sight to man using part of his tooth
Revolutionary operation allows people to regain most of their vision after their cornea is damages
Only a handful of patients in France have received the operation. Photo for illustrative purposes only
2024 DuxX/Shutterstock
A young man in France is able to see after being blind for more than half his life, following a revolutionary operation using a part of his tooth grafted onto his eye.
The tooth was hollowed out and a lens inserted into it. This was then placed under the man’s skin so the body becomes acclimatised to the new object.
The operation at Montpellier University Hospital (Hérault) saw doctors reconstruct a cornea using the man’s canine tooth and plexiglass, which was later grafted into the eye.
Both the placement of the prosthetic into the skin (usually under the cheek) to vascularise and the placement of the lens into the eye can take up to eight hours.
The procedure took place this September, and is only one of a handful of operations of its kind in France, all undertaken at the Montpellier hospital.
If successful, so providing there has not been any nerve damage and the prosthetic is not rejected, patients can regain up to 80% of their vision.
‘My goal is to see a flower again’
The operation is only possible on those who have had their corneas burned.
The 24 year-old man, Dylan, was blinded at the age of 12 by Lyell's syndrome, a skin disease that can sometimes cause victims to lose their eyesight.
“It was a new life, because you have to readjust to all that,” he said to FranceInfo.
However, he is now set to reclaim his vision, as his eye slowly adjusts to the new device.
“[I”m excited about] seeing my parents again, because my parents are my parents…[and] my brother and sister who were very young. And nature, seeing a flower again, just a rose. All of that, that's my goal, really,” Dylan said.
The tooth-lens hybrid replaces the cornea and allows light into the eye once more, however the prolonged operation requires precision so as not to scratch the prosthetic lens during installation.
Following the operation, vision slowly comes back over a period of a few weeks, during which care must be taken not to disturb the eye.
Other patients to have received the operation include Jean-Jacques, who burned his cornea during a workplace accident.
“Before the operation...I could not do anything. Now I’m soldering electronics again,” he said to France3.
Jean-Jacques had previously received a cornea transplant but his body later rejected it, leaving him again unable to see.
