Tooth In Eye Surgery: Sharron Kay Thornton Sees Light Again

A 60-year-old U.S. woman, blind for the past nine years, had her sight restored by fitting a plastic lens into a tooth from her mouth, then implanting the "eye tooth" combo into her eye.

Sharron "Kay" Thornton, a U.S. grandmother from the southern state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 due to Stevens-Johnson syndrome, caused by medication she was taking. This illness is a rare disorder in which a person's "skin and mucous membranes react severely to a medication or infection" and can cause "a painful red or purplish rash that spreads and blisters, eventually causing the top layer of skin to die and shed." As a result, in addition to her sight, she also lost her hair, nails, and most of her skin.

Thornton attempted to correct her problem through gene therapy but failed. Then Dr. L. Perez of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine decided to perform an unusual procedure called "modified osteo-odento-keratoprosthesis" on her. The procedure, originally developed in Italy in the 80s and has long been used in Asia and Europe, was a first try in the United States.

Within hours after the bandages were removed from Thornton's eye, she was able to recognize faces, and two weeks later, she is able to read newsprint. According to Victor Perez, a cornea specialist at Bascom, Thornton's vision is expected to preserve a visual acuity of 20/70 for the next ten years.