A DAD has told how a dentist dropped a drill tip down his throat — and it was left for nine weeks.
Scott Pearson, 34, felt something hit his windpipe as he was about to get a filling replaced.
He tried coughing but the 2cm attachment had already slid down his oesophagus.
Staff reportedly said it would pass naturally but his GP ordered him to A&E.
An X-ray showed it had ended up in his digestive system — rather than his lungs — and medics assured him it was safe.
However worried Scott, a train driver from Sheffield, feared it would puncture his internal organs, and insisting on a scan after it still had not appeared days later.
He says docs at Chesterfield Royal Hospital finally checked nine weeks after his dentist trip, and discovered it was lodged in his appendix, as he suspected.
They then carried out an emergency appendectomy in December 2022.
The dad of two said: “I had to inspect every bowel movement.
“I was worried it was sharp and was going to perforate my intestine so I didn’t know if I should be driving a train full of people.
“It would’ve been a matter of time before it caused a big problem like causing my appendix to rupture.
“That’s life-threatening. It was a traumatic thing.”
He received £16,500 compensation from the dental practice in an out-of-court settlement but had to fork out £5,000 in legal fees.
Scott said: “Before it had all happened if someone had said, ‘I’d give you £11,500 to go through this’ I would have said no.”
He is on a three-year waiting list to move so has been back for check-ups.
He says they booked him in with the dentist who dropped the bit but got another after he complained.
Chesterfield Royal Hospital have been contacted.
