Abstract
We have occasionally experienced cases with aberrant foreign bodies, such as fish bones or metal fragments of dental materials, in the oral region. Recently, there have been cases of serious injury due to piercing of the nose, lips, and other body parts. We report the case of a 49-year-old man with a needle in the floor of his mouth that had been used to pierce the tongue.
The patient visited our department because of difficulty in swallowing and speaking. Macroscopically, only a slight redness on the right side of the oral floor was seen; the foreign body could not be felt on palpation. Panoramic radiography and computed tomography showed a sharp, straight metallic object extending from the floor of the mouth to the submental region. The object was located in the deep submucosal layer of the oral floor into the right suprahyoid muscles and was surgically removed from the inside of the right anterior belly of the digastric muscle using an extraoral approach. We chose to use general anesthesia because of the risk of bleeding and airway obstruction. The object was a metal needle 5 mm in diameter and 50 mm in length. The postoperative course until 1 year was uneventful.
