“I think I’ve had 10 corneal transplants now in 20 years,”
said Chapman, who works as a massage therapist in North Vancouver.
He’s having another procedure on Thursday that he hopes will restore his sight.
It’s called tooth-in-eye surgery,
and it sounds like science fiction.
“In essence, we are trying to really just replace a clear window on the front of the eye.
And the tooth is the perfect structure
to hold a focusing piece of plastic
or a telescope
for the patient to see through,”
said Dr. Greg Moloney, a corneal surgeon who perfected the two-part procedure in his native Australia and moved to Vancouver in 2021.
Moloney and oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Shannon Webber, who has flown in from Australia, will perform the initial surgery on Chapman and two other patients this week at Mount Saint Joseph hospital in Vancouver.
The surgeons will remove one of the patient’s canine teeth
and glue a small lens inside that tooth.
“After we do the harvesting of the tooth,
we implant it into the cheek so there’s a tissue lining.
And in three month’s time,
we remove it from the pocket in the cheek
and sew it onto the front of the eye,”
said Webber.
“If we are successful in the surgery, which we all hope we are,
and the patient’s retina
and nerve at the back of their eye
is healthy,
then they can recover close to normal vision,”
said Moloney.
“We have hope, realistic hope, of giving Brent and other patients a normal life again.”
“This could change the suffering I’ve been going through with all these surgeries,
give me some stability
and maybe even some good vision,”
Chapman said.
The first-in-Canada tooth-in-eye surgeries are being funded by the St. Paul’s Foundation.
The $430,000 donation will fund the clinic for three years,
after which the program will be folded into Providence Health Care’s operating budget.
“I’m incredibly grateful to
the St. Paul’s Foundation,
all the fundraisers and the donors who,
you know, showed up for me and, and others and people like me,”
said Chapman,
who is also thankful to his parents for going to great lengths to find solutions for his condition.
While he’s been doing the tooth-in-eye surgery for years, it’s not lost on Webber how incredible the procedure is.
“In my job as a surgeon, I’m cutting jaws, breaking faces, moving and reconstructing faces.
But people have a hard time fathoming what that actually means, to tell them that I’m putting a tooth in the front of the eye, just it’s absolutely mind blowing,”
said Webber.
While vision could be restored for Chapman and the other two patients after they have their second procedures in May, their eyes will look very different.
“It won’t look like a normal eye.
It’s covered with some buccal tissue from inside the cheek or the lip,
and that will cover the whole structure.
So the eye will look pink with a small dark circle in the middle,”
said Moloney.
Chapman says the trade-off is worth it.
“You take function over appearance.
It’s just going to open up so many more doors,”
he said.
“It’ll give me freedom again.”
The 33-year-old is optimistic he will finally get to see the world the way he did before his coma two decades ago.
“There’s a lot of things, bucket list things I want to do once I can see again.
It would mean the world to me really.”
Aug. 9, 2025 "A decade after losing her sight, a B.C. woman can see again — through her tooth": Today I found this article by Jacqueline Gelineau on CBC:
After 10 years without sight, a Victoria, B.C., woman saw her partner's face and her dog's wagging tail this year for the very first time, thanks to a tooth surgically implanted into her eye socket.
Gail Lane, 75, was one of three Canadians to undergo the rare tooth-in-eye surgery, technically called osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis, in February.
Lane lost her sight ten years ago due to complications from an auto-immune disorder that caused scarring to her corneas.
In the weeks that followed the complex two-part surgery, she gradually regained her ability to see.
First, Lane said, she was able to see light.
Then, she could see movement and the wagging tail of Piper, her partner's service dog, became perceptible.
Eventually, Piper the black Labrador came into focus, as did bits of the world around her.
"I can see lots of colour and I can see outside now.
The trees and the grass and flowers,
it's a wonderful feeling to be able to see some of those things again,"
said Lane.
She met her partner Phil after she lost her sight, and had never seen his face before.
Nearly six months after the tooth in eye surgery was completed, Lane saw him for the first time.
"I'm starting to see facial features on other people as well, which is also pretty exciting," said Lane.
She hasn't been able to see her own face in detail yet, but hopes that too will come with time — aided by a new pair of glasses that she will be receiving soon.
And Lane can now pick out her own outfits without help from a
volunteer app service called Be My Eyes,
which she had relied on to ensure her clothes matched.
First in Canada
While the surgery has been done in other parts of the world, ophthalmologist Dr. Greg Moloney from Vancouver's Mount Saint Joseph Hospital was the first to bring the operation to Canada.
"It's a complex and strange operation, but it basically involves replacing the cornea," said Moloney.
He said the surgery begins by removing a tooth from the patient's mouth.
The tooth is then implanted into their cheek for several month, until it is encompassed in strong connective tissue.
Both the tooth and connective tissue are then removed,
and a plastic focusing telescope or lens is inserted into it.
Using the connective tissue as an anchor,
the tooth and new lens are sutured into the patient's eye socket.
"We need a structure that is strong enough to hold onto the plastic focusing telescope,
but is not going to be rejected by the body,"
Moloney explained.
Lane said the surgeries and recovery were uncomfortable but not painful.
"It's been a long, it's been a long wait, but well, well worth it."
Lane said she is most excited to have her independence back.
"I'm hoping to have more mobility and independence in terms of short trips and walks here and there where I don't always have to have someone's arm for me to grab onto."
"I'm just looking forward, really, to seeing what I can do or do again — and trying to just be patient and let my brain adjust a bit because that's another big part of this."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tooth-in-eye-surgery-corrects-vision-loss-1.7602011
Be My Eyes:
Users
Use your smartphone to get free, instant visual description anytime, day or night. Connect with a volunteer, take a picture and let Be My AI™ describe it, or reach out to our partners through the Service Directory for help with their products.
The other 2 blog posts of the week:
"Coming to a store near you: double-digit coffee price hikes"/ "Tim Hortons raises coffee prices, calls hike ‘more than reasonable’"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2025/10/coming-to-store-near-you-double-digit.html
"‘Extraordinary value’: Chipotle to open more stores despite weak sales"/ "A&W Food Services reports $17.6M Q3 profit, up from $6.5M a year earlier"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2025/10/extraordinary-value-chipotle-to-open.html
LEO would like to know:
Are you going shopping on Black Friday this year?
No 62.77% (2460)
Yes 37.23% (1459)
Kristy E, Belle River, Ontario, would like to know:
Do you decorate for Halloween?
No, I don't decorate for Halloween 63.04% (3186)
Yes, both indoors and outdoors 15.33% (775)
Yes, only outdoors 12.33% (623)
Yes, only indoors 9.30% (470)
2022: The Year of Personal Decluttering/ Do you want to go to Las Vegas with me?
Apr. 3, 2023 "Singer Sabrina Carpenter faces backlash after 'gross' April Fools' prank falls flat at concert: 'Who told her this was a good idea?'": Today I found this article by Kaitlin Stanford on Yahoo:
Sabrina Carpenter is in some pretty hot water after pulling an April Fools’ Day prank on her fans that didn’t go over too well. In fact, people are still talking about it several days later.
During a performance in Salt Lake City over the weekend, the singer gave a seemingly improvised outro before the end of the concert. The lyrics, according to a now-viral TikTok, were: “Put your hands up if you live in Salt Lake/How do you get alcohol on Sundays?/I’m pregnant!/Happy April Fools’ Day.”
“Ooof, that’s some bad PR team she has,” one person tweeted. “Who told her this was a good idea? Incredibly insensitive to people who can’t get pregnant, have had miscarriages, or how about women currently pregnant but at high risk for losing the baby? Why are people so dumb?!”
“I thought literally everyone knew this was not an okay April fools joke?” said someone else.
At the same time, many commenters thought it wasn’t a big deal.
“y’all are so sensitive oh my god lol,” one person tweeted.
“a joke about being pregnant is not her or anyone mocking those who can’t get pregnant,” wrote someone else. “It’s a joke about your own body & everyone’s expectations & excitement. If you make it about yourself, that’s your problem. Y’all need to stop trying to make a problem where there isn’t one.”
After joking that she was pregnant, the crowd got noticeably quiet.
“THE SILENCE,” one person commented on the TikTok, which was shared by @nataliejoyhixon.
“That crowd’s silence said ‘how do we feel about this’ REAL LOUD,” added another.
Though the audience screamed and cheered as soon as Carpenter announced it was all a joke, not everyone’s been laughing.
“Gross joke,” one person wrote in the comments.
“I thought we as a society grew out of April Fool’s pregnancy announcements,” added someone else.
It’s true — for years now, people have been calling out how incredibly un-funny (and often hurtful) these kinds of jokes can be. While they may sound harmless to some, they are pretty triggering for those who suffer from infertility, as well as anyone who’s experienced pregnancy or infant loss.
My opinion: You guys are:
A. Offensive
B. Funny
C. Both
D. Neither
I would say it was mildly funny. She's making a joke about herself. This was a "gotcha" joke.
This reminds me of this joke. This was a "gotcha" joke. I have written about this joke on my blog:
Sept. 20, 2017 A guy who bought a box of condoms:
Cut to 2000. It was Fri. night. Probably Just for Laughs.
It was in May or Jun. 2000.
When I was 14 yrs old I was checking out Comedy Network. This 20-something yr old guy with curly blond hair and he was wearing a nice light blue button down shirt and khakis.
He was handsome.
He was smiling. He has his hands in his pockets.
Guy: So the other day I bought a box of condoms.
There is a pause. The audience is silent.
A guy in the audience yells out: Ow, yeah!
Pause.
Guy: Because my last one was expired.
The audience laughs.
I was like: "That's the cleanest sex joke I've ever heard."
I never thought I would say that.
Apr. 3, 2023 My opinion: He's making a joke about himself.
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/04/2022-year-of-personal-decluttering-do.html
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