Man with infected wisdom tooth dies several weeks later

In early 2021, a man 44 years of age living in Auckland in New Zealand, died a few weeks after being aware of having an infected wisdom tooth. He first complained of having pain in his lower right wisdom tooth on Christmas Eve in 2020. He went to see a doctor about it several times over many days for swelling and pain and was given antibiotics. He was unable to swallow the pills so was given liquid antibiotics instead but nothing seemed to help with the infection. Later the pain and swelling in his face and neck became progressively worse. He went to the hospital on January 4, 2021. While in the hospital he had x-rays taken and was later discharged. The family was shocked to hear that the man was able to get discharged that soon. He was sent … Read more

Seventeen Year Old Teenager Due for Lung Transplant after Wisdom Teeth Removal

An unfortunate story appears in KRDO describing a seventeen year old man who had two impacted wisdom teeth extracted in October 2022 in Colorado. Seven days after the procedure the man started coughing up blood and ever since then his health has deteriorated. Prior to the surgery the teenager was in good health regularily lifting weights and playing with his siblings in his home state of Colorado. As reported in March 2023, now the man over four months later is an inpatient at a hospital and struggles to walk from a hospital bed to a bathroom that is five feet away. Two days after he started coughting up blood he went into septic shock where he was placed on a ventilator and moved into the intensive care unit of a hospital. His family is in a constant state of fear … Read more

Man in China Dies Two Weeks after Wisdom Teeth Removal

Wisdom teeth surgery can in rare cases lead to death. This has been covered before on this site in blog posts such as Wisdom Teeth Removal Death in 2016 in Florida: Settlement Reached, Four and half million settlement in wisdom teeth extraction death, Two million settlement in wisdom teeth extraction death, Recent Stories on Wisdom Teeth Removal Death, Asphyxia Due to Compression of the Trachea Leading to Death After Wisdom Tooth Extraction, 12 Million Given After Wisdom Teeth Removal Caused Death, Wisdom Teeth Removal Leaves to Death Two Days After, and Air Embolism During Wisdom Teeth Removal Causes Death. In the middle of 2020 a Chinese man died after having his wisdom teeth extracted. The 26 year old man had his wisdom tooth removed at a hospital in the Hunan Province of China on May 25, 2020. He had continuous … Read more

Can Neck Hyperextension During Dental Treatment Lead to Stroke Like Symptoms?

An interesting article titled “Major Neurological Deficit Following Neck Hyperextension During Dental Treatment: Report of 2 Cases and Review of the Literature,” written by Victor G. El-Hajj and et. al. appears in the 2022 edition of the The Neurologist. The authors discuss two cases where patients had dental treatment performed and then suffered from neurological impairment due to hyperextension of the neck. Both patients had routine dental treatment done and had their necks overstretched which lead to a hopsital stay. The first patient discussed was a 67 year old man who saw his dentist for bridgework. He had been taking a medication for high blood pressure for nine years but had no history of cerebrovascular events. The man’s dental work took around 45 minutes and he was given local anestheisia. His neck had to be extended during the procedure to … Read more

Lemierre’s Syndrome after Wisdom Teeth Removal

An interesting article titled “Lemierre’s Syndrome Following Extraction of Wisdom Teeth,” appears in the October 20, 2020 edition of the Cureus Journal of Medical Science (written by A. Keshary and M. Hagan, 12(10): e11061). The article describes a case of an 18 year old man who had his wisdom teeth extracted and then developed Lemierre’s Syndrome which rarely occurs after wisdom tooth removal but is is known to affect young and healthy adults; See Near Death Wisdom Teeth Removal Experience where another case has been discussed on this site in the past. Lemierre’s syndrome is a serious bloodstream infection typically caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum. It has a death rate of around 18% and thus if detected needs to be quickly treated with antibiotics. Very few cases of Lemierre’s syndrome after wisdom teeth surgery have occurred since antibiotics became readily available. In the … Read more