Tooth-in-eye surgery performed successfully in Canada for the first time

Ian Tibbetts lived without his sight for 16 years due to a freak accident involving flying scrap metal in 1997. But in 2013, he was able to see his 4-year-old twins for the first time, thanks to a little-known operation that restored his sight with the use of his tooth called osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP).¹

What is tooth-in-eye surgery?

OOKP, also known as "tooth-in-eye" surgery, is a medical procedure that can restore vision in the most severe cases of corneal and ocular surface patients. It includes removal of a tooth from the patient or a donor. After this, a lamina of tissue cut from the tooth is drilled and the hole is fitted with optics. The lamina is grown in the patient's cheek for a period of months and then is implanted upon the eye.¹

Canada's first OOKP surgery

In Tibbetts's case, Dr. Christopher Liu at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton, UK, inserted the lens into a hole drilled through the tooth, which was then implanted in Tibbetts's eye. Recently, however, Providence Health Care ophthalmologist Greg Moloney successfully performed this procedure on three patients in Canada, making their cases the first in the country.²

The procedure was performed on Canadian woman, Gail Lane, at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital.

"I haven't seen myself for 10 years," She said. "If I'm fortunate enough to get some sight back, there will be wonderful things to see."²

As for Tibbetts, he was also grateful to regain his vision, but it went beyond just that.

"I have my independence back now and I can start looking after the kids while my wife is out at work." He said. "Before, the kids were just shapes. I couldn't make them out. I had to actually learn to tell them apart by their voices ... I would do anything to get some sight back. I had to try something."¹

How this procedure works

OOKP was pioneered by the Italian ophthalmic surgeon Professor Benedetto Strampelli in Rome in the early 1960s. By mostly relying on the body's own biological material, this procedure is intended to minimize the risk of a patient's body rejecting a foreign implant.

According to Dr. Liu: "Patients who have the surgery are often able to see immediately and the quality of sight can be extraordinarily good. However, it is only suitable for certain types of blindness, specifically patients who have severe and irreversible corneal damage."¹

The risks involved in this procedure limit surgeons from performing it in only one of each patient's eyes. Even still, it has been performed in 10 countries with a relatively high success rate; a 2022 study from Italy determined roughly 94 percent of implant recipients could still see even 27 years after having the procedure. Not only that, but recipients from previous studies were reported to be able to drive cars after recovery.²

Photos from the surgery can be viewed here.

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