Delhi man swallows toothbrush during cleaning mouth, gets relief at AIIMS

New Delhi, India: In an interesting turn of events, a 36-year old resident of Delhi accidentally swallowed a 12-cm-long toothbrush while cleaning his throat on a quacks' advice, which was later removed by AIIMS doctors from the man's abdomen.

The patient named Avid, living in Seemapuri, Delhi, had swallowed the toothbrush on December 8 while trying to clean his throat thoroughly. He was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital the next day when he complained of a stomachache.

Even in the hospital, Avid did not tell doctors about swallowing the toothbrush. He revealed of accidentally swallowing the toothbrush only after a CT scan in his abdomen revealed a foreign object in his body.

He was then referred to AIIMS for an endoscopy. Doctors there found that the toothbrush was still stuck in Avid's abdomen without having ruptured or perforated his internal organs. The 12-cm-long toothbrush was removed from Avid's upper abdomen on December 10 by performing an endoscopy.

Avid was discharged the same day and is doing fine.

Dr. Praveen Aggarwal, head of the department of emergency medicine at AIIMS, urges people to be careful while cleaning their tongue with a brush. "Often while cleaning the tongue, people have a tendency to put the toothbrush deep into the throat to clean it better. A better option would be to do it with a tongue cleaner," he said.