In clinical oral surgery, we often encounter cases of infants who fall down while holding a toothbrush in their mouth and receive an oral injury from a toothbrush. This particular case was that of a 5-year-old girl who accidentally injured her left buccal mucosa with a toothbrush. After the injury, she was immediately brought to the hospital by ambulance. When she arrived at our hospital, the toothbrush was still embedded in the oral wound. We examined her oral wound by computer tomography (CT). We found that the tip of the toothbrush was located in the vicinity of the left medial pterygoid muscle, and there was neither damage from the toothbrush itself nor on the maxillary artery and basal skull. We removed the toothbrush carefully under local anesthesia, and then cleaned the wound by adequate normal saline and administered antibacterial drugs (SBT/ABPC) intravenously. No serious complications were seen after the treatment.
It is strongly suggested that in such a case an immediate examination be conducted by CT in order to avoid severe complications and to insure a good healing process.
