#Toothbrush removed from man’s stomach after he swallows it

An Indian man’s teeth-cleaning routine went horribly awry after he accidentally swallowed the brush and had to have it surgically removed.

The unnamed Pasighat resident, 39, was reportedly brushing the back of his throat on September 15 when the toothbrush slipped and disappeared down his gullet, Metro reports.

Despite feeling no pain — and only minor, occasional discomfort in his stomach — the man reported to a nearby clinic, where doctors could not find the missing dental hygiene tool.

The patient was then referred to the Bakin Pertin General Hospital in Pradesh, where he received a throat scan the following day.

However, even X-rays couldn’t detect the toothbrush, which led surgeon Dr. Bomni Tayeng to deduce that it “had entered into the stomach.”

His suspicions were confirmed after he performed an exploratory laparotomy — where the belly is sliced open to aid diagnosis — and felt the instrument inside.

Although seemingly fairly innocuous, doctors determined that the man’s condition could become fatal if untreated. So they made a “small incision in his stomach” and extracted the bloodied toothbrush within 30 minutes, according to Dr. Tayeng.

Thankfully the man survived.

“The very next day he started taking oral fluids, and had an uneventful recovery” before getting discharged on September 21, Dr. Tayeng told SWNS.

This isn’t the first time a dental device has ended up in someone’s digestive tract. In July 2019, a New York City grandma accidentally swallowed her false teeth, which ended up chewing through her esophagus and causing fluid to leak into her spine.