Blind Irishman sees with the aid of son's tooth in his eye

                          AFP - Thu Feb 28, 1:30 AM ET
                          DUBLIN (AFP) - An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his
                          sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on
                          Wednesday. Bob McNichol, 57, lost his sight in a freak accident at a re-cycling
                          business in November 2005.

                          After doctors in Ireland said there was nothing more they could do,  McNichol
                          heard about a miracle operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP)
                          being performed at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton in England.

                          The technique, pioneered in Italy in the 1960's, involves creating a support for
                          an artificial cornea from the patient's own tooth and the surrounding bone. The
                          eye socket is then rebuilt, part of the tooth implanted and a lense inserted in a
                          hole drilled in the tooth.

                          A national campaign was immediately started, and after several exhaustive
                          months of searching England and Ireland, someone with a healthy tooth was
                          actually found. Doctors were even able to forgo drilling the tooth by using one
                          of the many existing cavities already in the tooth.

                          "It was pretty heavy going," McNichol said. "The odds of finding a donor in this
                           part of the world are extremely rare. Now I have enough sight to get around and
                           watch TV. I've adjusted quite well, but I'm still having a difficult time learning
                           how to floss my retina."