March 1, 2008: A Tooth for an Eye

[xoxoxoBruce]

This is amazing, or bizarre... or both.
The Independant.IE says this man can see with his, actually his son's, eye tooth.

Father-of-eight Mr McNichol snr (57) was blinded in a work-place accident, when liquid aluminium exploded in his face in November 2005.

But he can now see again after doctors, using groundbreaking surgery, inserted his son's tooth in his eye.

"It doesn't look that great to be honest. People think I look like the Terminator but I don't care. The looks end of it are cosmetic and they don't matter.

"What is incredible is that I have come out of darkness into light again. I can watch television. I can walk down the street on my own. I can play darts and pool. I can see my wife and kids. It is just unbelievable".

The surgery, which costs an estimated €40,000, is believed to be the first of its kind to be carried out on an Irish resident.

Pioneered in Italy in the 1960s, Osteo Odonto Kerato Prosthesis (OOKP) surgery is carried out on patients for whom conventional corneal transplants will not work. It entails replacing a damaged cornea with a live tooth root and attached optical cylinder

I always wondered why they call them, "eye teeth".