Picture this: you’re getting ready to leave for your dental appointment and spend a good chunk of time going to town on your mouth with a toothbrush, floss, and mouthwash. Perhaps you even repeat the entire routine twice to ensure your mouth is squeaky clean. Surely nobody wants to be scolded for neglecting their oral hygiene, so all patients ensure their mouths are in the best possible shape before going to see the dentist… right?
Oral Hygiene Neglect
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Aside from plaque, dentists have found some extremely odd things in the mouths of their patients, from candy wrappers to broccoli bits that were nearly a week old. Read on for the top five strangest finds, in order from least likely to make you sick to your stomach to the worst of the worst.
- Super Glue
- A Fly
- Mold
- Sprouting Tomato Plant
- Oral Myiasis
For 10 years, a woman in England took a DIY approach and reached for the super glue whenever one of her teeth fell out because she was terrified of the dentist. The toxic glue led to severe bone loss in her upper jaw, and she ending up needing most of her teeth removed and replaced with dental implants.
There’s No Need to Be Afraid of Our Office
If the thought of visiting the dentist makes you a little squeamish, join our dental family. Our comfortable office provides Netflix and Hulu in our treatment rooms, cozy pillows and blankets, complimentary beverages, office-wide WiFi, calming candles, and stress-free payment options for an enjoyable visit. Our compassionate team will help you feel at ease in our care. Don’t put off dental treatment, or small issues may turn into really big ones that are more painful and expensive to treat down the road!
Have you ever gotten the tiniest sliver of a popcorn kernel stuck in your teeth and couldn’t rest until you dislodged it? Apparently, one patient coming in for their routine checkup might not be quite so bothered, since the dentist was shocked to find a fly inside their mouth! It’s believed that some flies are capable of transmitting a minimum of 65 diseases, including typhoid fever, anthrax, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis, tularemia, leprosy, and tuberculosis.
Dentures are removable devices that act as replacement teeth for those who have lost their teeth, and are meant to be taken out every day to be cleaned with a special denture paste. Amazingly, one patient right here in Arizona didn’t remove their dentures for over a year. By the time they visited a dentist, there was black and white mold growing all over their prosthesis. Yuck, talk about a health hazard!
When a dentist went to take out the dentures of another patient who also hadn’t removed or cleaned their prosthesis in years, they not only noticed mold growing but discovered a tomato seed that had taken root and was growing out of the dentures! Although we counsel you to eat your veggies, we do not recommend growing those veggies inside your own mouth.
We definitely saved the worst for last, so if you don’t have a strong stomach, we recommend not reading on. A ten-year-old girl complained to her mother about an odd sensation in her mouth. When the mother finally brought her daughter in to see the dentist, he discovered maggots growing inside of the little girl’s gums. It’s the result of a rare disease called oral myiasis caused by the larvae of certain dipteran flies. It mostly occurs in developing countries and the tropics.
Come Visit Us Every 6 Months!
You know how we tell you to come visit us every six months? Well, believe it or not, some patients don’t listen and go as long as they can without gracing us with their presence. Routine checkups and cleanings are an important part in keeping your teeth and gums in tip-top shape… and bugless. As long as you follow our dental hygiene recommendations, you should experience a life full of happy, healthy smiles. Contact us today to schedule your next appointment at Toothology Dental!
