When Brent Chapman first heard his doctor suggest surgically implanting one of his own teeth into his eye to restore his vision, he admits he felt apprehensive. But after speaking to an Australian woman who had undergone the procedure and was now skiing after 20 years of blindness, he knew he had to try.
Now, Chapman is part of history, as Canada performs its first-ever osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP), also known as the tooth-in-eye surgery. This remarkable procedure is giving hope to patients with severe corneal blindness—people who, like Chapman, have run out of options.
How the surgery works
According to CBC, The OOKP procedure is as unusual as it is groundbreaking. It is done in two stages, months apart.
First, a tooth is extracted, reshaped, and fitted with a plastic optical lens. The tooth, usually a canine, is selected because dentine is the hardest biological material the human body produces, making it an ideal foundation for a lens.
Once modified, the prepared tooth is temporarily implanted into the patient’s cheek, allowing it to develop blood vessels and soft tissue, which will help it integrate into the eye later.
Meanwhile, the patient’s eye is prepared for the transplant. Surgeons remove scar tissue from the cornea and replace it with a small flap of tissue from the inside of the cheek, which acts as a protective cover. This step is crucial, as it creates an environment in which the implanted tooth will function successfully.
A few months later, the tooth-implant is removed from the cheek and sewn into the front of the eye. The result is a pink eye with a small, black circular opening, allowing the patient to see through the implanted lens.
Why use a tooth?
The idea of putting a tooth in an eye may sound bizarre, but there’s solid medical reasoning behind it. According to Dr. Greg Moloney, the ophthalmologist leading the Canadian surgeries, the dentine in teeth is uniquely strong and biocompatible, making it the perfect casing for a lens.
Unlike artificial implants, which often trigger immune rejection, a patient’s own tooth is naturally accepted by the body. This dramatically increases the chances of long-term success—a crucial factor, given that 94% of patients in a 2022 Italian study maintained their vision for an average of 27 years post-surgery.
A last-resort procedure, but with life-changing results
The tooth-in-eye surgery is not a miracle cure for all types of blindness. It is specifically designed for patients with corneal blindness due to autoimmune diseases, chemical burns, or severe scarring. The key requirement is that the retina and optic nerves must still be functional.
Because of the complexity and intensity of the procedure, it is only performed on one eye. Additionally, the surgery comes with risks, including infections that could lead to total vision loss, surgical complications requiring additional operations, and, in rare cases, failure of the implant requiring removal.
Still, for patients like Chapman, the risk-reward balance is clear. Having spent 20 years enduring over 50 eye surgeries, with only temporary improvements, he is willing to bet everything on this last hope for sight.
Canada’s first tooth-in-eye surgery clinic
Before now, Canadian patients needing OOKP surgery had to travel abroad. That is about to change. Dr. Moloney, who has already performed seven successful OOKP surgeries in Australia, hopes to establish the first dedicated Canadian clinic at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver.
Thanks to $430,000 in donations from the St. Paul’s Foundation, the clinic will be funded for the first three years, after which Providence Health Care will integrate it into its annual budget.
Dr. Samir Jabbour, an ophthalmologist at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, calls this a “great opportunity for Canadian medicine.” He notes that while OOKP is rare, having the option available within Canada will significantly ease the burden on patients.
A second chance at life
For Brent Chapman, the dream of sight is within reach. If his final surgery succeeds, he looks forward to finally doing the things he once loved—playing basketball, traveling, and seeing the world again.
“Hopefully, this will break some ground,” he says. “If others in Canada need this, and it becomes an established treatment, I’d feel really great about that.”
Is it only me that finds the preferred tooth candidate being the ” eye tooth” a remarkable reality.