This bites.
It’s not entirely unheard of for teeth to grow in places other than the mouth, a condition known as ectopic teeth.
However, a 16-year-old boy in India developed an ectopic tooth in a highly unusual place, which doctors are calling a first ever in the world in a case study of the atypical event.
Medical literature has previously reported several cases of extra teeth growing in the nasal cavity, under the eye, in the nostrils and in the maxillary sinus, which is located inside the cheekbone.
This patient, though, had “the first and only ectopic tooth reported in the superior orbit,” according to case study co-author Dr. Meghana Tanwar, referring to the upper eye socket.
The teen patient first experienced painless swelling on his left upper eyelid, which lasted for a few months. He later saw two sharp, white projections poking out in the small space between his eyelid and eyebrow.
While the doctors initially thought the points were a teratoma, a rare type of tumor that can include bone and tooth tissue, a CT scan revealed they were indeed part of a mature canine tooth.
The doctors were able to surgically remove the tooth from the eyelid, and since imaging showed no other signs of additional teeth, Tanwar notes it’s unlikely the patient had any more ectopic teeth.
Many people experience teeth growing “out of place,” with about 2% to 6% of people seeing their first permanent molars grow out of line in the expected rows of teeth.
This tooth appeared completely outside the dental arch, an extremely rare occurrence.
“This was a first not just for us but the world over,” Tanwar said of the case. “We were very surprised by it.”
In a different patient, Tanwar had seen a tooth in the bottom of an eye socket. It turned out to be part of a rare, benign mass consisting 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 in could cause permanent damage to surrounding teeth, formation of cysts or sinus or nasal issues, depending where the tooth is located.
Some studies suggest that ectopic teeth may grow in unusual places because of developmental disorders, physical trauma, infection or genetics.
A previous case of a rare ectopic tooth caused a man to have difficulty breathing when doctors discovered a half-inch-long tooth growing inside his right nostril.
The 38-year-old New York man had reported to the doctor after experiencing breathing difficulties for several years, according to a New England Journal of Medicine case study detailing the olfactory anomaly.
In addition to a deviated septum, the patient also had bone-like growths in the nose, which doctors were able to remove via invasive intra-nasal surgery.
And back in 2019, a man who had lost his sense of smell discovered the culprit was a tooth growing inside his nostril.
