A CT scan showed that a dental implant was lodged in the patient’s nasal cavity (left). It was removed through endoscopic surgery (right). (Photo courtesy of The New England Journal of Medicine)

2013-10-29 | News Europe

BRESCIA, Italy: Italian researchers have found a dental implant that had travelled up into the sinus cavity of a 57-year-old woman, who was initially admitted for sinus inflammation and facial pain. The doctors believe that the implant had been lodged in the patient’s sinus for at least a year.

According the case report, which was published online on 24 October in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at the University of Brescia in Italy, the woman presented with recurrent sinusitis of the left maxillary sinus. A CT scan revealed the presence of a foreign body in her left ethmoid sinus.

Two years earlier, the patient had received an endosseous implant in her maxilla. However, a close examination revealed that it was absent. The doctors performed endoscopic surgery and extracted the implant. The patient was discharged the day after surgery, with rapid relief of symptoms.

The researchers concluded that displacement of the dental implant into the sinus may have been the result of improper positioning or a late consequence of peri-implantitis and bone resorption.