Dim/Dark 'spots' on display

Bit of an epic tale here:

Basically, whilst installing a new hard disk drive, I managed to damage a connector on the cable that goes to my Bluetooth/Wifi/iSight (i lost all three). At the same time I noticed dim/dark spots along the bottom of my LCD display, almost as if alternate LEDs in the backlight weren't coming on (a bit like the lights you'd see on the front of an old theatre stage!). It's more noticeable on light backgrounds, and when the display brightness is dimmed down...

Anyway, following a guide on this site I replaced the defective cable (i had to remove the glass covering my LCD display, my heart was in my mouth....) and now the Bluetooth/Wifi/iSight works perfectly again, but the dim spots on the screen are still there...

Is it possible that the backlight has been permanently damaged somehow? It's not a 'dealbreaker', and as I use my Macbook with an external display 75% of the time I don't really notice it much, but it obviously hurts the resale value somewhat....

Check out some visual evidence here -

The normal desktop appearance

The more noticeable view on a light background