A 60 year old woman had a drill bit come loose in her mouth, it occurred during a routine dental implant surgery. When they asked the patient to cough it out of her mouth, it appeared she had swallowed the drill piece reflexively. The patient was rushed to the hospital where they ran an x-ray, where they found the drill was trapped in her right lung. The drill part sat within her for three days until they were able to perform surgery. A bronchoscopy was performed to remove it. She was able to leave the hospital the next day but it took her a full month to recover.

This took place in Sweden- but it actually has happened right here in the United States earlier this year. The story goes about the same way- but with a much larger discussion on who should pay for it and the insurance involved. The dental office got the gentleman who swallowed the drill bit to sign a release saying they would only have to reimburse up to 500 dollars- of what turned out to be a 20,000 dollar hospital bill.

This type of emergency however, seems like a very large rarity, and nothing you would really need to worry about. it can only happen on certain procedures as well- making the likelyhood of it happening even less.It is not like people need more reasons to fear going to the dentist!