Denture Hazards and Estate Quack Dentists ( a poem)
In road accidents
sweep mouth for foreign bodies
loose dentures’ hazards
Many years ago, it was night duty. One could hear this high-pitched noise before entering the ward. Sounded like stridor.
This estate worker had a motor vehicle accident. An emergency burr hole operation was done for her head injury. The next three days after removing the endotracheal tube, her breathing was so loud, piercing the usually quiet environment in that ward. Her daily chest X-rays and blood gases were normal. She was fed through a nasogastric tube.
As stridor could denote a blockage near the voice box. Nurse Anna went through all the skull x-rays. There was a very thin white line at the throat level in a few old skull X-rays (see skull picture above) that were done before the operation.
The doctor came in the middle of the night and removed a loosened ill-fitting denture!
I don’t know if there are still such estate quack dentists around. But in an accident, that is one of the reasons why one needs to sweep the victim’s mouth for foreign bodies before inserting an airway device!
Chen Song Ping 