Dentists extract random tooth from man's nose
The tooth was growing in the nasal cavity, which caused nosebleeds
New York: In an unusual procedure, doctors have successfully pulled out a tooth - about half an inch long - growing in a young man's nose in Saudi Arabia.
After suffering from nosebleeds once or twice a month for three years, the 22-year-old man sought medical help.
Doctors found an ivory-white, bony mass, about half an inch (1 centimetre) long in the man's nose. After consulting with dentist colleagues, the doctors concluded that the mass was an extra tooth that had somehow ended up growing in his nose.
The patient had a well-aligned and complete set of teeth in his mouth, according to a report of his case published in the American Journal of Case Reports.
The doctors pulled out the extra tooth after putting the man under general anesthesia, 'Live Science' reported. The patient completely healed and had no more nosebleeds three months later.
Extra teeth are not that uncommon, and may even grow upside down, but they rarely grow all the way into the nasal cavity, said Dr John Hellstein, a dentist and professor of oral pathology at the University of Iowa, who wasn't involved in the case.
The patient in this case likely had a mesiodens, a common type of extra tooth, which is found around incisor teeth, Hellstein said.
"About a third of those actually develop upside down, and they can get rerouted upward, towards the nose," he said.