Healthy Living

Hey, you're not afraid of the dentist or anything silly like that, are ya? Nah, who gets nervous about going to the dentist? Besides, y'know, EVERYBODY. Cause yowza!! As anyone who's spent a significant amount of time in the dentist's char can attest, dental work = PAIN. Oh lord, the unholy terror! If not for the heavenly prescription meds accompanying major procedures, there'd simply be no point at all to the to tooth-y torture.

Okay, so maybe I've had a few bad experiences. If you're one of the rare souls who hasn't silently wished for death while under the drill, I'm super happy for you. Really, I am. So happy for you that I would never burst your bubble by telling you about the terrifying thing that happened recently to a poor, innocent woman having dental implant surgery.

Yeah ... I lied. I resent your happy dental memories! Anyway, this poor, innocent, 60-year-old woman was having regular old routine, commonplace dental implant surgery. In Sweden, ironically known as the home to the world's best dentists. (Not really, but it makes the story better.) This next part, unfortunately, is true: During the surgery, the drill head (called a burr) came loose from its grip and fell into her mouth. She was "pulled into a sitting position" but by then it was "too late," according to the hospital’s medical chief, Per Weitz: “She tried to spit it out, and was made to cough, but she’d already swallowed.”

Oh yes. And it gets better. Because when the doctors took her to be X-rayed (immediately, of course), it was discovered that the drill bit was not, as one might expect, lodged in her throat or her stomach. Nope, the 3 cm long drill head was "lodged in her right lung!"

No worries, though -- that's what a bronchoscopy is for, apparently, or as Weintz explained it: “A pinky-sized tube was sent into her lung with a small camera and pliers to grab hold of the drill.”

So it took her a month to recover but now the woman is fine and all's well that ends well and this kind of thing doesn't happen very often and blah blah blah, but really, the only appropriate way to wind up this terrible tale is as follows:

And that's why everyone should be scared of going to the dentist. THE END.

What's the worst thing that ever happened to you at the dentist?

Image via betsssssy/Flickr