According to the Cleveland Clinic, a whopping 36% of all Americans are terrified of going to the dentist. Maybe it has to do with Steve Martin’s character in Little Shop of Horrors, or “The White Angel” portrayed by Sir Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man. Or it could have to do with the fact that the National Library of Medicine has published a study titled: “Accidental aspiration/ingestion of foreign bodies in dentistry: A clinical and legal perspective.”
The aforementioned piece states that dental patients mistakenly ingested enough equipment on such a frequent basis that this phenomenon has become “a worldwide health problem in dentistry.”
And TikToker Tiara Janae (@tiaraajanaee) is now a part of this demographic who’ve had medical devices lodged inside of their bodies or ingested during an oral procedure.
She posted about her experience in a series of viral TikToks that begins with her riding in an ambulance and ends with her (as of this writing) being cared for in a hospital.
@tiaraajanaee This is how I’m coping
♬ LAILA NOT MY PROBLEM – On The Radar Radio
In the first clip, Janae sits in an ambulance, protruding her bottom lip to indicate that things aren’t all gravy in Turkey Town. She writes in an overly of the clip: “When you went to the dentist to get a cavity filled and now have a dental instrument inside of you.”
She flips the camera to drive home the fact that she very well is inside a moving emergency services vehicle. According to a caption, her posting a TikTok is how she is “coping.”
Janae shared a follow-up clip that showed her lying down in a hospital bed in what appears to be a medical facility. She didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of having to shirk solid foods altogether as part of her recovery process from her health scare: “Liquid diet is not for the weak. Take me home,” she penned in an overlay text that sees her looking forlornly into the lens.
@tiaraajanaee Replying to @indariaspalding ♬ original sound – Tiara Janae ♥︎
She pans around the room to show her hospital digs before flipping the camera around again. This time, she isn’t recording the open road, however, but an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
The next portion of her video shows the liquid diet food in question: A small tub of what appears to be plain yogurt, grits, and 2% milk.
As it turns out, viewers remarked that they, too, had difficulties during their own dental procedures.
One person shared, “I have a file in my gums still that broke off 3 years ago during a root canal. Good luck girlie!!!”
It seemed like other people have had problems with this same procedure as well, with one writing, “I had a root canal done last year, & a file broke off inside. He just filled it & said ‘oh well, nothing i can do now.’”
For someone else, a piece of dental equipment accidentally went inside of their lung.
“This happened to someone I know,” they said. “The drill bit fell off &went down into his lung, he had to go to the hospital too.”
“Bruh i had an orthodontist drop a literal key down my throat,” another said.
Janae’s story influenced one TikTok user to stay away from booking their next dentist appointment.
“Not me seeing this when I was just about to make a dentist appointment for the first time in like 10 years,” they said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Janae via TikTok comment.
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