[DiamondSmiles]

*You may recall, I posted a man who had the same surgery.*

“When they told me I was like, ‘Do What? You’re going to put it where?’”If you read my previous post about a British man, Martin Jones who had been blind for 12 years caused by an accident at work and recovered his sight by tooth implant, here’s a similar story that happened in September 2009 in the United States to a blind woman, Sharron “Kay” Thornton who had her sight restored by similar operation.


Sharron "Kay" Thornton

Thornton, 68, and a life-long resident of Mississippi, has been blind for the last ten years of her life, a side effect of a disease known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The ailment, which causes scar tissue to build up on the eye’s cornea, can lead to blindness. While cornea replacement is a viable option for some individuals afflicted with this disease, Ms. Thornton’s case was not the case.

She had tried stem cell surgery and other procedures to restore some vision, which she lost because of an allergic reaction to medication. But all of the efforts failed until now.

Science fiction to us, but a miracle to Thornton and her family, she regained her sight through a first-in-the-U.S. surgical procedure at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.


The procedure — Modified Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (MOOKP) was performed by Dr. Victor Perez, a cornea specialist, an associate professor of Ophthalmology and a secondary appointment in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of Miami University and he also completed his residency at Harvard Medical School.

How it’s done is more interesting than why it’s done.

“This is a patient where the surface of the eye is totally damaged — no wetness, no tears… So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye. We use that tooth as a platform to put the optical cylinder into the eye,”Doctors extracted one of Thornton’s canine teeth, (eyeteeth), and shaved off the crown of the tooth that’s visible above the gum leaving only the root and a portion of the surrounding bone. Doctors then shaved off a part of the root and bone leaving only a sliver of the root and bone. In other words, the entire tooth was not implanted in her eye.

Oral mucous membrane from inside her cheek was removed and grafted to her left eye.

A hole was drilled into the center of the sliver of bone and tooth to serve as an anchor for the cylinder lens, which was placed in the center. The cylinder lens allows light to reach the back of her eye enabling her to see again.

The cylinder lens, tooth and bone, (called a odonto-keratoprosthesis), was then implanted into a hole drilled in Thronton’s cornea.

The mucous membrane which was removed from inside her cheek was overlayed on top of the odonto-keratoprosthesis like a skin graft over the eye.

The photo of Mrs. Thornton shows the eye as it looks with the oral tissue and tooth laid over her eye with the cylinder lens protruding out of the center. Later a prosthetic eye shell will cover her left eye and give it a completely normal appearance.

Thornton now has 20/70 vision and can recognize people and read tiny newspaper and magazine print with a magnifying glass. She will wear glasses the rest of her life, doctors said. Thornton said her greatest thrill so far has been seeing her three children and nine grand children for the first time in almost a decade.

And to think she almost wasn’t able to have the surgery because she was going to have all her teeth removed a few years ago.

“Being blind was horrible after seeing for 51 years,” Thornton said.

Here is Martin Jones' story
http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...s-site-110427/

[GlassToTheArson]

Absolutely incredible!

[Rusty666]

[Sharon]

That really is INCREDIBLE

[butterfly]

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by mintycbo ↗

Odd that I come across this in your post, was having some problems with my medications, and Stevens-Johnson's came up as a possible side effect along with T.E.N.S. , Both of which can be fatal.
(Luckily I'm having neither as a side effect, and Had my appointment with my doc for Monday scheduled since last month when I seen him last.. Just been feeling out of it lately.)

Some interesting stuff on a DAMN scary disease..



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens...hnson_syndrome

I'm glad to hear you were just, "out of it", for awhile and feeling better.

It must have been quite a relief! Both of these diseases would scare me big time, too!

[VulpesInculta]

I'll be damned. How amazing!

[TwistedPrincess]

the poor woman must have to make decisions the rest of us never even considered. gargle or eyewash on her seeing eye tooth? if she gets a cavity in her seeing eye tooth - optometrist or the dentist? where to buy optical floss? if she bites her nails will she see the pain? they should do one eye with a wisdom tooth so she can see how smart she is.

seriously, modern medicine is truly amazing.

and that woman in the video that mintycbo posted... yikes! makes one wonder why some people have to endure such unrequested and unexpected hell in their lives.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by TwistedPrincess ↗

and that woman in the video that mintycbo posted... yikes! makes one wonder why some people have to endure such unrequested and unexpected hell in their lives.

This is why I have no real religious beliefs.

If people find comfort in their beliefs, I'm happy that they are happy, but, when I see things such as the video and things that happen to innocents, I can't help but wonder.

Religious people will tell you man made his choices, but, some people do go through Hell and back and don't falter in those beliefs.

[ouisch66]

I took care of a 13 year old who had Stevens-Johnson syndrome. He'd gotten it from taking Lamictal for ADHD. I'd never heard of Lamictal being used for that and I don't even think Lamictal is supposed to be given to children. Anyway, his was blind. They'd sewn his eyelids about 3/4 of the way shut and we had to put eye drops in the 1/4 that was still open. He only lived a few months.