So, I went for a dental cleaning this morning and the tip of the ultrasonic cleaning tool broke and couldn’t be found. Not sure if I swallowed it, aspirated it, it got suctioned, or it flew across the room and into the houseplant in the corner. The hygienist seemed a bit worried about it and said I could even need to get a chest x-ray but the doctor thought there was very little chance that I wouldn’t have felt it go down if it were still in me. I felt nothing unusual. Anyway they are going to check the suction trap at the end of the day to see if it is in there and they are going to call in a few days. I have no idea why they want to call me since if anything seems wrong I’ll call them or more likely go to the emergency room or my doctor. I called my GP to see what she thinks but it is her day off. They are going to call me in the morning. I didn’t get a flossing lecture at least.
Are dental instruments ferrous? Do I need to worry about this thing if I get an MRI 10 years from now?
Is there an established protocol for this sort of thing? I’m wondering if the ADA has guidelines that are supposed to be followed when you lose stuff in a patients’ mouth.
If they can’t locate the part in their office, I would insist that they do whatever needs to be done to ensure the piece is not stuck in your lung - x-ray, CAT scan, whatever it takes. They are responsible for making 100% sure that the missing piece is not inside of you.
It’s a liability thing. Even if there’s a .001% chance that it’s in you, it’s still non-zero. And if it gets stuck somewhere and causes a secondary infection, you’d be pretty likely to sue them for the medical bills (and pain and suffering). A preventative xray now is much cheaper than the alternative.
My GP pretty much said that there is little chance that I would have swallowed or aspirated it without noticing. She seemed to think swallowing without noticing was more likely and that if I did swallow it that it should pass without incident. This was all couched in the typical " but anything is possible and I can’t say for certain" sort of language that one would expect. Also it was all through her nurse so something could have been lost in that translation.
She also said that if it is inside of me and I have an MRI that it would vibrate and get quite hot and could cause a burn. I always figured metal came flying out of the body in an MRI.
I’ll probably talk to the dentist next week and see if they found it. Otherwise I suppose I’m not likely to do anything about it. The more I think about it I probably wasn’t swallowing much since they use suction during a cleaning and I was breathing through my nose because the ultrasonic tool uses water. I will probably ask them if the tip is ferrous and express some concern regarding an MRI in the future. I don’t think I’m inclined to make a big deal out of it though.