Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis. It's a real procedure that really does revive people's ability to see, yet we get the feeling that people will be more, um, excited about how it's done than why it's done. The seemingly Mary Shelley-inspired doctors extract a tooth from a blind person and drill a hole through it, where a prosthetic lens is placed, and the resulting macabre construction is implanted into the blind person's eye. The tooth is necessary as the body would reject an artificial base. It's not at all pretty, and it cannot repair every type of blindness, but it's still a major step forward. To hear from Sharron Thornton, the first American to have undergone the procedure, check the video after the break, but only if you can handle mildly graphic content -- you've been warned.
[Via
Daily Tech]
posted Sep 22nd 2009 6:25AM
:O
:(
What colour was the tooth?
Don't forget to brush your teeth... x.x
Now, if he's drinking and starts some shit with you, you can punch him in the eye AND knock out a tooth all at once!
Give the guy a break, he is blind and this is the only way to restore sight.
Don't look in the eyes or you will get also..
Don't look in the eyes or you will get also..
Creeepayy. But awesome.
O.-
Friggin.....Creepy
maybe this will pave the way for sunglass monocles
This is what science is for.
Cue eyetooth jokes in 3... 2... 1...
Thanks Engadget for helping me, digesting my breakfast the other way around!
engadget made you eat through your ass?... wow
Does that mean your going to crap out your mouth? Get that on video.
lol. "get that on video." hahahahaha. Sharron Thornton would love to see that.
Well if you want to see that so badly watch a cable news station.
er...
one step closer to becoming cyclops
I can help you become a cyclops if you really want.
Do you mean Cyborg? She's already a Cyclops, (if you want to call her that) because they only operated on one eye. We have to assume that her right eye can't see anything. Well, I guess technically that little camera in her eye could make her a Cyborg. You'd think they would have taken one of her molars and not one of her front teeth, though. XD
seriously gross!
surely they could grow flesh of a different kind that would look better?
Would you happen to be a Mac fanboy by any chance? It's not all about aesthetics but sometimes about the actual performance which in this case; it's a complete win.
Mac "Vally Girl" fan boy none the less.
@Spring: Wow, way to set up a straw man. Please stay on topic.
She did say she'd give her eye tooth to see again.
I guess she was right.
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to be the first to make the eye tooth joke.
left or right?
How about this + a special contact lens to make it look less creepy?
All better and not as creepy.
But it looks kind of awesomely demonic as it is.
Leer:
http://www.rajaneyecare.com/modified-osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis.html
Definitely creepy
If you were blind for 9 years, and one of your teeth gave you sight, would you think this was creepy?
Wtf Engadget.
It's cool and science-y for sure, but did we need that closeup appearing in the post's header? Blah.
Reminds me of something the "other gadget blog" would do.
is it just me or do her eyes look like Wikus Van Der Merves eyes in District 9 after hes nearly transformed.
STOP GIVIN AWAY PLOT POINTS
....and here I thought Engadget was a safe zone, ugh.
You thought Engadget hahahahahah Engadget was a hahahahahahaha a safe hahaha a safe zone HAHAHAHAHAHA
You fool.
iTooth
You'll have to wait till version 3 to get video recording...
wonder if it supports bluetooth
then you'd need an iBrush™
:-)
Pah, I still can't look at more than one thing.
Apple of my eye, yeah right.
it will be interesting to see stevie wonder do this.
how weird would it be to not know what things look like?
That's a very good question. People develop their vision growing up. A person that has been blind all their life will not know how to see properly when they can see suddenly. A car far away and one nearby would just seem the same distant to them but one is smaller. I wonder if it's possible for them to learn to see properly being blind from birth until adult.
I figure that part of their brain would also be severely underdeveloped.. Would it even make the right connections after such a long time?
How far science has come though is astounding.
What a fantastic public speaker!
I agree 100%
Medical care should be given out on a basis of how well you can give press conferences.
Good for her.