Patients with blindness due to severe chemical burns, trachoma, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid,multiple corneal graft failure etc require a keratoprosthesis or a replacement of their natural cornea. In many such cases a keratoplasty (replacement of cornea from a cadaver) will not work because of the high rate of rejection. The only suitable alternative is a keratoprosthesis. A modified Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) is the best choice in such cases.

For the OOKP, the patient's own canine tooth root is used to fashion the prosthesis. The modified proceedure is credited to Dr. Falcinelli, and is an improvement of the original procedure of his teacher, Dr. Strampelini.

The modified OOKP (MOOKP) is basically a 2-step procedure. The first stage involves removal of the patient's canine tooth, and it is designed to hold the lens. Next, the tooth is paced in a pocket, which is created under the skin of the normal eye. A small piece of mucous membrane is than removed from the inside of the cheek and attached to the sclera of the injured eye. Five-months later, the second stage of the operation is performed. By now, the tooth, which is covered by soft tissue is removed from the pocket under the normal eye and placed behind the mucous membrane of the damaged eye, such that only the lens protrudes out of the eye.

The cost of OOKP would be around £8-10,000