Each year, 5 million Americans reportedly have their wisdom teeth removed. According to Aesthetic Dental Associates, only in approximately 8.4% of cases, there are complications. TikTok user Anna Walters (@anna.walter13) was one of those cases. She revealed in a TikTok slideshow that has 178,000 views that the removal of her wisdom teeth resulted in a broken jaw.
In the first photo in the slide, the content creator in in her car, on the verge of tears. “When you go to remove your wisdom teeth,” she said via text overlay.
Then, in the second photo, she continued, “And end up with a broken jaw. The second photo is of her X-ray. It shows her jaw with a large fracture in it.
Walters also shared a photo of her sitting down with an IV in her arm. Because of the broken jaw, she “[had] to go through another surgery,” she shared.
Her final slide features a diagram of what the surgery aims to do. To make matters worse, she says she is going to “have to spend 6 weeks on a liquid diet, not being able to chew.”
Walters never disclosed the dental office where she had the surgery conducted.
The Daily Dot reached out to Walters via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.
How does a dentist break a patient’s jaw during the procedure?
According to Spetasas Buist, a dentist can fracture a patient’s jaw if they use the wrong technique or too much force during extraction of the teeth. The signs that the jaw is broken are “severe pain, swelling, and difficulty in opening the mouth.” When this occurs, the patient must seek medical attention, with the possibility of undergoing surgery. This surgery includes “wiring the jaw shut for proper healing, or using a splint to stabilize the fracture.”
Viewers are now scared to get their wisdom teeth removed.
“Another reason i’m not gonna remove mine,” one viewer wrote.
“Whew they showed me the paperwork on the POSSIBILITIES of getting mine removed and that was it. I walked out,” a second commented.
Another viewer asked Walters for more information about the incident. “Did they know they broke it when it happened? Or did you have to wake up and realize something was wrong?” they inquired.
Walters replied in the comments section, saying, “12 days after I went to another dentist because I told mine something was wrong and he said no, everything was healing perfectly. So the other dentist did a 3d xray and saw the broken jaw lol.”
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