Abstract
Although patients with tongue piercing problems are encountered in clinical practice, cases in which a self-operated piercing needle has penetrated deep into the oral floor are rare. We describe a case in which a needle became embedded deep within the patient’s oral floor during self-piercing, and its location was confirmed using 3D-computed tomography angiography （3D-CTA） imaging, followed by removal of the needle. The patient was a 23-year-old man who was referred to our department after being transported to an emergency department because a piercing needle had migrated deep into the floor of his mouth. Computed tomography （CT） imaging showed a linear opaque signal from the oral floor to the inferior border of the mandible. As there are many important blood vessels in the deep part of the oral floor, we used 3D-CTA imaging to confirm that the needle was not in close proximity to any blood vessels. With the diagnosis of a foreign body embedded within the oral floor, an intraoral approach was performed under general anesthesia to remove the foreign body, which was a 50-mm-long needle. Postoperatively, the patient had an uneventful course and was discharged on the fifth day of hospitalization. After discharge, there were no signs of infection or neurological deficits.
