It bites.
It is not uncommon for teeth to grow somewhere other than the mouth, a condition known as ectopic teeth.
However, in India, a 16-year-old boy developed an ectopic tooth in a very unusual location, which doctors call the world’s first in a case study of this atypical event.
The medical literature has already reported several cases of extra teeth growing into the nasal cavity, under the eyes, in the nostrils and in the maxillary sinus, located inside the cheekbone.
This patient, however, had “the first and only reported ectopic tooth in the upper orbit,” according to case study co-author Dr. Meghana Tanwar, referring to the upper orbit of the eye.
The adolescent patient first experienced painless swelling of the left upper eyelid, which lasted for a few months. Later, he saw two white, sharp projections appear in the small space between his eyelid and his eyebrow.
While doctors initially thought it was a teratoma, a rare type of tumor that can include bone and tooth tissue, a CT scan revealed that they were indeed part of a mature canine tooth.
Doctors were able to surgically remove the tooth from the eyelid, and because imaging showed no other signs of extra teeth, Tanwar notes that it is unlikely the patient had other ectopic teeth.
Many people experience their teeth growing “out of place,” with approximately 2-6% of people experiencing their permanent first molars growing out of alignment with the expected rows of teeth.
This tooth appeared completely outside the dental arch, an extremely rare phenomenon.
“It was a first not only for us but also for the whole world,” Tanwar said of the case. “We were very surprised by it.”
In another patient, Tanwar had seen a tooth deep in an eye socket. It turned out to be part of a rare, benign mass of normal tooth-forming tissue called an odontogenic choristoma.
The cause of the tooth in the teen’s upper eye socket is unclear to doctors.
Leaving an ectopic tooth could cause permanent damage to surrounding teeth, cyst formation, or sinus or nose problems, depending on where the tooth is located.
Some studies suggest that ectopic teeth may grow in unusual places due to developmental disorders, physical trauma, infection, or genetic factors.
A previous case of a rare ectopic tooth caused a man to have difficulty breathing when doctors discovered a half-inch-long tooth growing in his right nostril.
The 38-year-old New York man had presented to the doctor after experiencing difficulty breathing for several years, according to a New England Journal of Medicine case study detailing the olfactory abnormality.
In addition to a deviated septum, the patient also had bony growths in his nose, which doctors were able to remove using invasive intranasal surgery.
And in 2019, a man who had lost his sense of smell discovered the culprit was a tooth growing in his nostril.
Gn Health
