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DIY dentistry

Superglued denture

British Dental Journal volume 235, page 595 (2023)Cite this article

A 73-year-old woman presented at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester Emergency Dental Clinic complaining of an inability to remove her lower implant-retained denture. Further questioning revealed she had attempted to improve the retention with superglue and subsequently could not remove it; on presentation it had been in situ for nine days. She reported multiple, increasingly desperate attempts to remove the denture before seeking professional care. These included levering on the denture with knives and gargling acetone. Sadly, this was not the first time she had presented at our clinic in such a cyanoacrylate pickle!

Under local anaesthetic, various attempts were made to remove the prosthesis, all of which failed. It is known that water will hydrolyse cyanoacrylate within several hours up to a few days.1 However, given that there was no movement on the ninth day, we hypothesised that the glue had seeped into exposed implant threads and was more protected from the action of saliva. The patient was in so much discomfort she could not tolerate the prosthesis any further; we therefore advised the patient that exposure and removal of the ball locators along with potentially sectioning the denture was our remedy of last resort. The patient accepted that the denture fit would be significantly compromised.

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Fig. 1

References

  1. National Centre for Biotechnology Education, University of Reading. Super glue. Safety data sheet. 24 June 2015. Available at: https://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2021/09/Superglue.pdf (accessed August 2023).

  2. Thumwanit V, Kedjarune U. Cytotoxicity of polymerized commercial cyanoacrylate adhesive on cultured human oral fibroblasts. Aust Dent J 1999; 44: 248-252.

  3. ATSDR. Chapter 2: Health Effects. In Toxicological Profile for Acetone. Atlanta (GA): Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (US), 2022.

  4. Sigsworth T. 'I bought some Superglue and stuck it back in': The rise of DIY dentistry in Britain. The Telegraph (London) 2023 July 16. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/diy-dentistry-nhs-dental-health-teeth-fillings/ (accessed August 2023).

  5. Garcia F. Superglue and self-extraction: Britain's Desperate 'DIY dentistry' is a painful reality The Guardian (London) 2022 May 30. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/30/superglue-self-extraction-diy-dentistry-britain-nhs-dental-treatment (accessed August 2023).

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  1. University Dental Hospital Manchester, Manchester, UK

    S. Patel & J. Darcey

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  1. S. Patel
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  2. J. Darcey
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Correspondence to S. Patel or J. Darcey.

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Patel, S., Darcey, J. Superglued denture. Br Dent J 235, 595 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6456-7

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