Tooth Implant Enables British Man To See Again

12-years after he lost his vision in a construction-related accident 42-year-old Martin Jones can see again - thanks to a new radical procedure that involved implanting a tooth into his right eye.

The operation, performed by Dr. Christopher Lui in the UK, involved removing one of his canine teeth and drilling a hole into it and inserting a special lens inside. Then the doctor pulled out a portion of his skin from his cheek and grafted it into the eye.

After about two months, when the flap had fully attached itself to the eye and developed blood vessels, the doctor planted the the tooth into the eye socket and pulled the grafted skin over the tooth base. He then made a small hole in it that corresponded with the hole in the tooth, so that light could penetrate throught it. It took two weeks for the eye to heal, but it worked.

Martin opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was his wife. Since they had been married only for four years, he had never seen her and never really hoped to! He has since enjoyed seeing the beautiful things around him, though he did get a chuckle looking at the Smart car, which he thought was a car sawed off in half!

While Martin's left eye can never been restored because it had to be completely removed when he was injured, he is happy with just one toothy eye, which makes him look like someone from a science fiction movie.

sources: telegraph.co.uk, zeitgeist.com