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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A man who started experiencing “weird hiccups” was shocked when a chest X-ray revealed the source of his discomfort.
Artur from São Paulo, Brazil, posted a picture of the resulting X-ray to Reddit under the handle u/_flutter_. To most casual observers, it all looked pretty ordinary, but in the lower-left corner doctors saw something that required urgent attention.
“It all started when I went to the dentist, and they said I'd need to remove all four wisdom teeth,” Artur told Newsweek. “I am very afraid of needles, and I know that being awake, while someone is slashing through my mouth, would be uncomfortable. I would definitely faint several times during the surgery. So I requested to be sedated.”
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The procedure Artur underwent is extremely common. The American Journal of Public Health estimates approximately 5 million Americans have their wisdom teeth extracted annually.
At first, it seemed as though Artur’s procedure had gone off without a hitch, even though, afterwards, his dentist told him one of the four wisdom teeth removed had gone down his throat. “He assumed I swallowed it,” Artur said. “He assured me it was not a big deal, and it would just come out the other end a few days later.”
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Artur went home and while there was some pain in his mouth, he was otherwise fine. But as time ticked on, that began to change. “I started developing very weird hiccups,” he said. “They were very strong, and hurt my chest. They only happened when I stood up. If I was laying down they disappeared.”
Though he went to bed, hoping to sleep off whatever was wrong, overnight Artur experienced fever symptoms. By morning, he was concerned enough to contact his dentist. “He suspected I may have aspirated a tooth,” Artur said. He was told to go to the hospital and get a chest X-ray.
Sure enough, doctors examining the resulting chest X-ray confirmed Artur had indeed aspirated his tooth. They also explained how this freak occurrence may have happened. “Usually when a tooth slips like that during surgery, the patient just coughs it out, or swallows, but because I was sedated, I didn't have that reflex,” Artur said. “I was also very unlucky that the tooth fell in the worst possible place, and I ended up aspirating it. In over 40 years of practice as a surgeon dentist, this had never happened to my dentist before.”
With the diagnosis made, Artur then underwent a bronchoscopy with doctors sending a tiny camera inside his lung to find the tooth. “Then they use a little hook to get it out of my lung,” Artur said. Artur shared the image they took of his tooth inside his lung to Reddit. It’s an extraordinary image and a reminder of the marvels of modern medicine.
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The good news is that he made a quick recovery from there. “There was no permanent damage, and the symptoms stopped instantly after the tooth was removed,” he said.
Posting his story to Reddit, Artur got quite the response. It’s been upvoted over 8,000 times, with users stunned at what happened. “As someone who’s feeling his wisdom teeth coming in this is terrifying,” one user wrote. “While I have all my wisdom teeth removed at this point, this is a horror show sentence I never wish to hear,” another said. A third added: “I work in oral surgery and this is our worst nightmare. Not that it’s super life threatening or anything but it’s the one thing we do our best to prevent.”
Artur hopes his story stays with people and they are vigilant of the symptoms he described. “This can happen with anything, not just teeth,” he said. “I caught it quickly, and had no problems, but if it stays for too long in the lung, it can cause serious problems, it's not a situation to be taken lightly. If there's any suspicion that this could have happened, go to the hospital and get an X-ray.”
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