An Italian woman has had a dental implant surgically removed from her face after going to the doctor complaining of facial pain and inflamed sinuses.
An Italian woman has had a dental implant surgically removed from her sinus cavity after going to the doctor complaining of inflammation in the area as well as facial pain.
Two years ago, the woman had undergone dental surgery to put a screw almost one inch long to hold a replacement tooth in her upper jaw.
When doctors examined the woman's jaw, they didn't find the implant, but a CT scan revealed that it had somehow shifted to her sinus cavity near her left eye.
Doctors removed the screw, and the woman is reportedly in good health.
There are a variety of ways that the screw could have ended up in the woman's sinus cavity.
One expert thinks that it happened during the oral surgery because no crown was found on the implant, which should have been there if the surgery was successful.
Doctor Jack Caton, chair of the Division of Periodontics at the University of Rochester Medical Center who didn't treat the woman said: "The patient may not have been informed of this intraoperative complication by the surgeon, or may not have understood any information that was given."
Also dental implants have been known to migrate in other cases as well, like when the bone is not thick enough to integrate with the implant
