By: Rosie Torres, R.D.H.
Picture this! You sit down on your comfy couch, with a favorite beverage in one hand and an overflowing bowl of hot fresh popcorn in the other. An exciting new television show or movie starts and you pop a handful into your mouth. When you bite down, you suddenly feel a sharp burst of pain in your teeth and then in your gums. YIKES!!! A popcorn hull has dived right in between your teeth and is now firmly wedged under your gums. You pick and poke, but nothing seems to dislodge this pesky invader!
Popcorn Hulls Can Be Dangerous
It’s a common scenario. But for one particular 41-year-old man in England, it led to open-heart surgery. In 2019, Adam Martin was eating popcorn and watching a movie when a popcorn hull got stuck in his teeth. Desperate to remove it, Adam picked and prodded at his gums with an assortment of household items like pen caps, toothpicks, a piece of wire and even (*cringe*) a metal nail.
Even with all the poking, Adam couldn’t remove the hull and developed a toothache. Soon after he developed flu-like symptoms. Finally he visited a doctor and got diagnosed with a heart murmur. He also developed a blood blister on his toe, called a “Janeway lesion.” This can be a sign of endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart. About a month after the popcorn incident, he was rushed to the hospital. He was diagnosed with endocarditis, which caused serious damage to his heart valves. This required 7-hour open-heart surgery to replace his damaged valves.
Adam’s situation is rare. But using random household items like nails, pen caps or wire to remove something from your gums can lead to other health risks. They harbor harmful bacteria that can seep into your bloodstream and cause your gums to bleed.
Instead, here are 3 ways to safely unstick the stuck!
