How long to pass through gut ?

Just received an e-mail from the girlfriend. Her way of not having to spend the cash to sigh up I guess… :slight_smile:

Could you straight dope something for me please ?
John swallowed 800 euro worth of cap from one his teeth while he was chomping the other day. Basically - hope you’ve finished eating - he’s still waiting for it to, um, show up shall we say and wants to know if he’s wasting his time.

So the question is this how long will it take a tooth like object to travel through a grown man’s alimentary canal - it was ingested with good red meat rather than dodgy curry or sweet corn like substances.

I have only this to say. It might help.
Depends. :eek:

Where do I apply for the world’s record? I had a salad the other day that was apparently prepared by the chef using his feet after rinsing them in the toilet or something. Or the salad was laced with explosives or something. I swear it spent no more than 20 minutes in the dark, and I spent a good part of the afternoon . . . indisposed. And yes, it was definitely the same salad: there were chunks of fresh tomato in the, um, product. So have your friend eat at Gretchen’s in the lobby of Benaroya Hall in Seattle; he’ll get his dentistry back instanter.

Time can vary widely. How much roughage does he eat? A few bowls of corn flakes and a dose or two of mineral oil should speed things up. A dental cap is pretty small. Hope he has lots of latex gloves 'cause he’s gonna have to examine everything very carefully.

The only problem is that it could get lodged in an outpouching of the intestine if he has diverticulosis or in his appendix if he still has one. These are unlikely but you never know. Something like this could take a few hours to a week or more to pass. If his sensibilities were too delicate to make thorough examinations he may have missed it already.

The dentist can put a temporary cap on it in the meantime and those suckers can stay on for many months while he digs up another 800 euros.

True, but without grossing anyone out, if he finds it again I think he’s going to reuse it, thus saving 800?, even if his food tastes a little funny afterwards :slight_smile: