14 DAY TRIAL // In March 2013, Alison Southwood of Warwickshire, UK, visited her dentist for what was supposed to be a routine root canal treatment.
While her doctor was trying to fix her faulty tooth, however, the drill he was using broke apart and a fragment of it became embedded in the woman's jaw.
To make matters even worse, the drill fragment got lodged right next to a nerve. Hence, doctors are refusing to operate on Alison Southwood and remove it.
They say that, were they to hit the nerve while attempting to grab hold of the piece of metal equipment and pull it out, they might hit this nerve and damage it.
Were this to happen, the woman might lose sensation in the lower side of her face. When compared to this outcome, leaving the drill fragment there seems preferable.
The woman was offered compensation for her ordeal
Following the incident, Alison Southwood, now 44 years old, was offered ₤5,500 (€7,600 / $8,600) compensation by the dentistry firm responsible for the mishap.
The woman spent most of the money on treatment needed to keep her pain under control and on attempting to find a specialist willing to operate on her and remove the broken drill.
“I can't believe how much stress and misery has been caused by what should have been a simple operation,” the 44-year-old said in an interview, as cited by DM.
There is still some hope she will be rid of the drill
The tooth that the drill fragment is lodged in is now rotten and Alison Southwood will have to have it removed sooner rather than later.
The woman hopes that, once the tooth gets pulled out, surgeons will be able to reach the metal piece embedded in her jaw and remove it without damaging her nerve in the process.
The reason she is so desperate to be rid of the drill piece once and for all is that she fears that, in time, this foreign object in her jaw might cause her metal toxicity.
“It's a race against time to get it out. If left for too long, the metal could cause a toxic reaction. It's an absolutely terrifying thought,” she said.
