Dropping dental tools down a patient’s throat isn’t just poor chairside manner – it’s also potentially deadly.
In Florida in 2006, a man’s dentist dropped a tool down his throat. The man had to have a colonoscopy to remove the dental implant screwdriver tool. In 2007, the man returned to the same dentist, who proceeded to drop a ball implant mini wrench and ball attachment down his throat.
He got another colonoscopy, but doctors weren’t able to find the tools that way. An x-ray indicated there was a tool in the lower lobe of his lung, but two bronchoscopy procedures were unsuccessful. So then he had major surgery to remove the lower lung lobe, where a tool was found.
Unfortunately, there were complications from the surgery. The man died in 2007, less that two months after the second tool was dropped down his throat.
His family is pursuing legal action.