Blind woman in Canada gets her tooth implanted in eye to restore vision

The doctors first removed one of Lane's teeth, shaved it down into a rectangle, drilled a hole, and popped a plastic optical lens inside. It was then placed in Lane's check where it will stay for about three months. (Image credit: Mount Saint Joseph Hospital/Facebook)

A blind woman in Canada may just be able to see again after doctors implanted used one of her teeth in her eye. The rare “tooth in eye” surgery has been done multiple times across the world for decades to restore sight, but this was Canada's first reported case.

The patient, Gail Lane, had gone blind a decade ago. She underwent the surgery earlier this week at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver, the hospital shared on Facebook.

“It is a rare operation that most people have not heard of, even if you are an eye surgeon,” Dr Greg Moloney, an ophthalmologist and surgeon at the hospital, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Known as “tooth-in-eye surgery”, this innovative and rare procedure involves implanting a small lens inside one of the patient’s own teeth. The tooth is then placed in the eye, creating a new window for vision. The procedure is divided into two parts and involves using a patient’s own tooth to craft a support structure for an artificial cornea.

The doctors first removed one of Lane's teeth, shaved it down into a rectangle, drilled a hole, and popped a plastic optical lens inside. It was then placed in Lane's cheek where it will stay for about three months.

“(The tooth) doesn’t have any connective tissue that I can actually pass a suture through to connect it to the eyeball. So the point of implanting it for three months is for it to gain the layer of supporting tissue,"  Moloney told CTV News. He added that the patient's eye was prepared for the implant by removing the top layer of its surface and replacing it with a soft tissue graft from inside his cheek. This graft would heal in a few months before the "tooth" can be implanted.

“I haven’t seen myself for 10 years,” Gail said with a nervous chuckle. “If I’m fortunate enough to get some sight back, there will be wonderful things to see.”