In Israel, a Patient's Vision Was Restored Using Her Own Tooth
Israeli ophthalmologists restored a woman's vision by transplanting a piece of her own tooth into her blind eye.
Tzipi Balili went blind in one eye due to a serious corneal disease. To solve the problem of blindness, Israeli doctors offered her a complex but effective procedure called osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, which involves corneal prosthesis using the patient's own tooth tissue. Ophthalmologists explained that in her case, this was the only way to regain her sight – and the woman agreed without hesitation.
⚡Who is Suitable for Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis
- ➤ Patients with severe corneal burns (chemical, thermal);
- ➤ In cases of multiple rejections of donor corneas (4+ failed transplants);
- ➤ With scarred corneal damage after injuries or infections;
- ➤ In cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome or other autoimmune eye diseases;
- ➤ When standard keratoplasty is impossible due to a lack of healthy tissue.
At Ichilov, ophthalmologists perform this unique operation in collaboration with maxillofacial surgeons. An ophthalmologist's consultation to assess the possibility of the procedure is available within 2 days.
The technology of osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis is a complex procedure that is carried out in several stages and includes two surgeries lasting eight hours each. First, the maxillofacial surgeon removed Tzipi's healthy tooth along with its root and fragments of the surrounding bone, which was then carefully shaped into a thin plate. In this plate, he drilled a tiny hole into which he inserted a plastic lens – the so-called optical cylinder, which serves as a light conduit to the retina. The tooth tissue in this case is an ideal "container" for the lens, as it does not provoke a negative immune response and does not cause rejection.
The resulting structure was then sewn into the patient's cheek, allowing it to maintain its viability and obtain a functional biological implant. For three months, it remained in contact with the mucosa, developing a fibrous capsule and growing blood vessels. During this time, Israeli surgeons performed a superficial keratectomy on Tzipi, removing the upper layer of the cornea and stitching a flap of mucosa taken from the inner surface of her cheek, thus preparing the base for the osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis transplant.
In the next stage, an incision was made in this mucosal flap, which had integrated over the eye, where after preliminary removal of parts of the iris and vitreous body, the transplant complex cut from the cheek was inserted. Given that the prosthesis used the patient's own tissues, it integrated well. After some time following the completion of all stages of the surgical intervention, Tzipi Balili began to see with her previously blind eye.
The method of osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis was developed in the early 1960s by a professor at the Institute of Ophthalmology of the Catholic University of Rome. However, it became available for use only relatively recently, and today it is applied in only a few medical institutions worldwide, including those in Israel.
⏱️ How Treatment Proceeds: Stages and Timelines
- ➤ Stage 1 (Day 1): Tooth extraction, formation of the prosthesis with the optical cylinder, implantation in the cheek;
- ➤ Stage 2 (3 months): The prosthesis integrates in the cheek, growing blood vessels;
- ➤ Stage 3: Preparing the eye – corneal removal, mucosal transplantation from the cheek;
- ➤ Stage 4 (after 2-3 weeks): Extraction of the prosthesis from the cheek and implantation into the eye;
- ➤ Rehabilitation: 4-6 months until full vision recovery.
Total treatment duration: 6-8 months. The patient stays in Israel for 2 hospitalizations of 10-14 days each, with the rest of the time being outpatient observation.
From now on, despite the complexity of the technology requiring several surgical interventions over three to four months, it will become even more in demand, as in most cases it has a favorable outcome and helps restore vision in complex situations where other methods cannot be used. The procedure, in particular, is recommended for people with severe damage to the cornea, sclera, or conjunctiva, who have contraindications to penetrating keratoplasty due to irreversible deformations of the anterior part of the eye or a tendency to serious allergic reactions that provoke rejection of the transplanted tissue.
“Until now, such people had no chance of restoring lost vision simply because medicine did not have methods capable of helping them,” says one of the ophthalmologists who operated on Tzipi Balili. “But now we have this opportunity. It is a complex, lengthy, and risky procedure, but the excellent results it provides outweigh all the difficulties. We have restored Tzipi's ability to see, and when I think about this result, I realize that it was worth all the effort, the long and meticulous preparation, the time that my colleagues and I spent in the operating room. We intend to perform similar interventions in the future to be able to restore vision to hundreds of blind people.”
The doctor also noted that after the final integration of the bone-tooth prosthesis, patients may have a scleral lens implanted for cosmetic effect, which looks like a healthy eye with a pupil, iris (the color of which is matched to the second eye), and a white sclera.
⚡Alternative Methods of Vision Restoration at Ichilov
- ✅ Keratoplasty with donor cornea – for mild and moderate damage;
- ✅ Boston KPro prosthesis (artificial cornea) – less invasive, but with a higher risk of complications;
- ✅ Limbal stem cell transplantation – for limbal cell deficiency;
- ✅ Amniotic membrane – for restoring the eye surface after burns.
Ichilov ophthalmologists choose the method at a council considering the condition of the eye, the age, and the overall health of the patient. Each case is evaluated individually.