Accidental ingestion of a fractured piece of orthodontic aligner: a case report

Ingestion and aspiration of orthodontic devices are rare occurrences, typically associated with components such as expansion keys, archwire segments, dislodged fixed appliances (including brackets, buccal tubes, and bands), as well as fractured metal or plastic appliances. This article describes the clinical diagnosis and treatment process of a case of accidental ingestion of a fractured piece of orthodontic aligner. A 31-year-old female under orthodontic treatment by aligners accidentally ingested a fractured piece of the aligner. The special difficulty of this case is that the transparent orthodontic aligner has a low radiopacity. At the beginning, no foreign body was found in the commonly used soft tissue window, causing difficulty in its location until greyscale was adjusted to lung window. The 2-centimeter fractured piece was taken out under anesthesia and endoscopic surgery. Materials with low radiopacity should be read with a lower grayscale range. Fractured orthodontic appliances with low retention force should not continue to be worn until consultation with attending doctor.