For those of us who had to wear braces there was no better feeling than leaving those days well behind us.
Sadly for this 30-year-old Aussie woman, her stint with straightening braces on her teeth came back to bite her when she visited her doctor complaining of abdominal pain.
Initially, they suspected gallstones might be to blame, but when she was x-rayed they discovered it was something else completely.
In the woman’s intestines, the scan picked up a metallic object that was seemingly twisted up in her bowel.
Taking her in for an operation to find out what it could possibly be, surgeons discovered a 7cm long piece of dental wire used to hold braces in place. The tiny piece of metal had pierced her intestines in several places and become tangled around itself.
WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC PHOTO OF THE WIRE THEY FOUND (seriously there are intestines)
The woman had not worn braces for 10 years, and says she had no memory of missing or swallowing any wire.
The doctors removed the wire and the woman is expected to make a full recovery.
The case was detailed in the BMJ, which strongly recommended doctors take patients with abdominal pains for a quick scan before making a diagnosis – you can never be sure what’s gotten tangled up in there!
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