A 75-year-old man in China almost choked to death after accidentally swallowing his dentures while eating a meal. The dentures were lodged in his throat for about eight hours before they were removed during emergency surgery, according to news reports.
Zhu Benbiao was rushed to the hospital by his family after they noticed he had difficulties breathing and eating.
He was scanned at the hospital, and it revealed that one of his two dentures was stuck at the bottom of his throat. An endoscope revealed that the false teeth were stuck sideways near his trachea and esophagus.
As a result, Benbiao had to undergo emergency surgery. The four-hour surgery had to be completed immediately because doctors estimated the dentures had been stuck for about eight hours. If the doctors hadn't acted fast, the man would have died of asphyxiation.
Benbiao is expected to make a full recovery.
Though unfortunate, this is not the first case of dentures getting stuck in a person's throat.
In August, an ear, nose, and throat specialist in the U.K. wrote about a 72-year-old man whose removable dentures got stuck in his throat during a surgery to remove a benign lump from his abdomen.
It wasn't until eight days later that doctors realized that the false teeth were in the patient's throat. Doctors discovered the teeth on a radiograph after the man returned to the hospital, complaining of pain, bleeding, and trouble swallowing.
This case was used to remind clinicians to have patients take out any removable dentures before undergoing general anesthesia.
