If you wear/wore braces, this is now your worst fear.
Wearing braces can be a painful experience as it is without this happening. A woman in Australia has had a piece of dental wire removed from her small intestine despite having got her braces off 10 years ago.
The woman, who is in her 30s, went to her local hospital in Australia complaining about cramping and serious abdominal pain. At first, doctors thought the pain might have been related to the woman's gallbladder and she was released from the hospital when the pain had settled.
She returned two days later though and once again sat in the emergency department with extreme pain in her stomach. The doctors did a CT scan on her and discovered that some object had punctured her small intestine in several places.
The small intestine is the stop gap between your stomach and large intestine, it absorbs nutrients and allows non-absorbed food to head to the large intestine. Doctors thought at first that it was a fish bone that had caused the damage, and asked the woman if she remembered swallowing anything, to which she replied no.
Although she hadn't worn braces in a decade, doctors found a seven-centimetre piece of wire from her braces which perforated her bowel.
People on social media who had a history with braces couldn't believe what had happened.
https://twitter.com/MaryBethGriggs/status/894958824683163648
https://twitter.com/murpheyaw/status/894699091371982848
https://twitter.com/XOXOLucyy/status/894693988040454145
https://twitter.com/KimBNorman/status/894701243771351040
Of course, there's always one wise guy...
https://twitter.com/Crutnacker/status/894693671936942080
The full report from the hospital on the matter can be found
here.
