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Supernumerary tooth grows in man’s nose

Anterior rhinoscopy (upper left) and endoscopic view of the supernumerary tooth in the patient’s nasal cavity. (Photograph: Al Dhafeeri et al., American Journal of Case Reports, 2014)

Tue. 12 August 2014

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DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia: Surgeons in Saudi Arabia have found a white bony mass inside the nose of a 22-year-old. They said that the mass was an extra tooth growing in the young man’s left nasal cavity. The patient had suffered from nosebleeds once or twice a month for the past three years, the doctors reported.

The patient was admitted to King Fahd Military Medical Complex in Dhahran owing to recurrent nosebleeds and tonsillitis. Close examination of the man’s nasal cavity found a 1 cm-long white cylindrical bony mass arising from the floor of the nose, according to the case report.

A consultant dentist made the diagnosis of intranasal eruption of a supernumerary tooth. The prevalence of such teeth is not known, as they usually remain asymptomatic in many patients and the mechanism of eruption is poorly understood. “One theory is that there is a defect in the migration of neural crest derivatives destined to reach the jawbones. A more plausible explanation is multistep epithelial and mesenchymal interaction,” the surgeons stated.

While supernumerary teeth are usually asymptomatic, patients may present with a variety of symptoms, including nasal obstruction, headache, nosebleed and external nasal deformities. They may be associated with conditions such as cleft palate. The surgeons further said that such teeth can be easily detected using nasal endoscopy, panoramic radiographs, and CT scans.

In the present case, the patient underwent endoscopic extraction of the supernumerary tooth with its surrounding granulation tissue under general anaesthesia. After three months, the area was completely healed and the patient did not experience further nosebleed.

The report, titled “Recurrent epistaxis caused by an intranasal supernumerary tooth in a young adult”, was published online on 5 July in the American Journal of Case Reports.

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