A 10-year-old girl was taken to her dentist as she felt something moving around in her mouth, Brasilia, Brazil. What happened next will turn your stomach.
Talking to reporters, the gir’s mother, Adriana said, “She had been saying for a few days that she felt something moving around in her mouth and at first I thought she was joking. I couldn’t see anything and she didn’t seem to be in pain. But then it started getting worse and no matter how much we brushed her teeth she said she still felt something. I couldn’t believe it when they said she had a disease and then started pulling the maggots out. I thought I was going to be sick.”
After the girl’s swollen gums were examined by a dentist it turned out that a tingling sensation was something worse than gingivitis. Maggots. The girl was diagnosed with a rare form of oral myiasis, a fly lava maggot infection that grows in humans and animals. A spokesman for the dental surgery said, “There were 15 maggots in her mouth so we videoed the removal for our records as it is a rare occurrence. We also wanted to show the girl’s family what had happened and warn others.”
Myiasis is the parasitic infestation of the body of a live mammal by fly larvae (maggots) that grow inside the host while feeding on its tissue. When the tissues in the oral cavity are invaded by parasites, this is known as oral myiasis. Those at risk of the rare condition include those from poorer social backgrounds and people who have suffered wounds or other injury to the face. Infestations of the nose and ears are dangerous because of the possibility of penetration into the brain, the fatality rate is 8 per cent in such cases.