Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Implanting a tooth in your eye?

It may not make sense, but Kay Thornton can now see thanks to a team of ophthalmologists and dentists. CNN reports that Thornton had her tooth implanted in her eye to function as a base to hold an artificial lens. Thornton lost her sight secondary to corneal scarring that resulted from Stevens-Johnson syndrome in 2000 and she has been living in darkness for the last 9 years. Her procedure is called a modified osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis (MOOKP). Try pronouncing that three times.

As technology advances medicine, perhaps this procedure won't require a tooth in the future. New synthetic materials will emerge. Maybe we'll even see some form of an artificial eye in the future.

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