Aspiration of dental impression material – a case report

Dentists are sensitive to the many risks surrounding their clinical practice. Many of these are predictable and of low impact; reasonably, clinicians warn patients about pain after extraction and root canal treatment. Some risks are unusual, but derive from higher risk procedure and are well described, for example nerve injury with third molar extraction. This report describes the uncommon and morbid sequelae of a low risk procedure, that of impression-taking. General dentists frequently take impressions from one day to the next for the purposes of diagnosis, treatment and monitoring.

This report describes the fatal consequences of impression material aspiration in an elderly male patient.

A 72-year-old male was admitted to a district general hospital intensive care unit after suffering a respiratory arrest at home. This followed a visit to his general dental practitioner where impressions were taken for new dentures. The patient's relative reported that the patient had been supine during the procedure and following this the patient had become short of breath. His previous medical history included frequent chest infections and sleeping in an upright position. His medical records did not include any previous diagnosis of heart or lung problems but his wife gave a history of increasing shortness of breath over the last two years. The patient was a non-smoker and was not taking any medication.