This surprised and confused doctors because the man didn’t have a history of facial trauma or any other abnormalities corresponding to these growths, based on a report in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Surgeons Sagar Khanna and Michael Turner performed a rhinoscopy, which uses a light and a lens so that doctors can see inside a patient’s nasal passages. This is when they discovered “a hard, non-tender, white mass was observed in the floor of the right nostril.”
Using x-rays or an ultrasound, the doctors could confirm their finding to be an “ectopic tooth in the nasal cavity.” An ectopic tooth is similar to impacted teeth, the only difference being that ectopic teeth show up where they shouldn’t, like a man’s nose, for instance.
It’s extremely rare though, for something like this to occur. Ectopic intranasal teeth occur for 0.1% to 1% of the population. They are more common among those with cleft lips. It is not evident in this case what was responsible for the growth of the tooth.
According to the National Health Service (NHS) Queen Victoria Hospital in Grinstead, England, ectopic teeth are when “one or more teeth develop in the wrong position, end up getting stuck and remain buried in the jawbone under the gum. The most common ectopic teeth are the canine teeth in the upper jaw.”
“The main risk of this is that the tooth can bump into the roots of other adult teeth and cause damage. Sometimes this can make them feel wobbly and eventually need to be removed. A cyst can also form around the buried tooth,” says the NHS.
Some people have a baby tooth left in their mouth, which has not been naturally pushed out by the buried adult tooth. This baby tooth over time may eventually be lost, leaving a gap or require further dental treatment to replace it.
When the surgeons removed the New Yorker’s tooth from his naval cavity, they discovered that it measured at 14 mm in length. Thankfully, the man did not suffer any complications after the surgery and is no longer having trouble breathing.