A 24 year old woman in Singapore died after having four wisdom teeth extracted in 2019.
The woman had visited the National Dental Centre Singapore first in August 2018. At another visit in April 2019 she complained of severe pain in the upper and lower right side of her mouth. While at the appointment, it was determined that the pain could be due to her four impacted wisdom teeth. The woman decided to have wisdom teeth surgery under general anaesthesia. The woman had no known drug allergies and had previously been given general anaesthesia without any side effects.
In May 2019, the woman was admitted to a hospital where she was given a pre-anaesthetic assessment where nothing out of the ordinary was noted. However it was noted the woman was obsese and had a skin condition known as hidradenitis suppurativa. An anesthesiologist administered the woman general anaesthesia and an oral and maxillofacial surgeon removed the four wisdom teeth. The surgery was uneventful for the first 90 minutes however right before it completed she showed signs of mild hypercapnia which is a rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide. The woman’s mild hypercapnia began increasing in severity and she showed reduced oxygen saturation which led to oxygen ventilation being given. Depite efforts to resuscitate the woman she died several hours later on the same day as the surgery.
An autoposy was performed which showed malignant hyperthermia. This condition is a life-threatening reaction that occurs due to certain anaesthetic agents used during general anaesthesia. This can occur after a single exposure or multiple exposures of anesthesia. No other anatomical or toxicological causes of death were found. There was no foul play determined.
During an inquiry by the coroner it was questioned whether the woman should have instead had one or two wisdom teeth removed instead of all four at once. A dentist exlained that if a patient was planning on removing all four wisdom teeth at some point they would usually advise to do them all at once. It was also mentioned that the woman was given an option to choose instead local anesthesia. The anesthesiologist who administered the anestheisa said that malignant hyperthermia is a rare inherited condition where a gene mutation occurs where there is an adverse response inhaled anaesthetic agents. The anesthesiolgist said that 1 in 50,000 in of those in Western populations suffer from this gene mutation while it is even rarer in Asian populations.
Unfortunately death from wisdom teeth extraction can happen and is a known complication.
Source: Lydia Lam, “Coroner rules medical misadventure in case of woman who died after wisdom teeth extraction“, CNA, October 3, 2022.