How A Woman Lost Her Eye From A Dental Procedure

When Jenn Morrone went into her local dentist's office to get a standard root canal, she never thought she'd leave to become the woman who lost her eye in a dental procedure — mostly because that sounds like the premise to a 1950s horror film and not real life. And yet, that's exactly what she became when a very simple, safe and routine procedure when very, very wrong.

When you go to the dentist to get work done, there are a few standard practices that they enforce. You always get that paper bib clipped around your neck. They always stick that spit-sucker in the side of your mouth, and proceed to ask you questions about your life and hobbies that you literally can't answer. They always put on gloves and a face mask and eye protectors and tilt your chair back before they get to work. But what they're also supposed to do, when doing any sort of procedure, is put protective eyewear on you, too. And for Morrone, if they had remembered this step — which is not mandatory, but definitely should be — she'd still have her eye.

The germs that exist in one part of our body don't always vibe well with the germs in other parts of our body. Even if you don't have an infection in your mouth, the germs might cause an infection in another part of the body due to the interaction and environment change. This is the case with Morrone. When the dentist went in with a novocaine shot to numb her mouth before the procedure, he somehow dropped the needle into her eye after administering it in her mouth. Slippery hands? The bacteria from her mouth caused a serious infection in her eye. She tried multiple rounds of antibiotics but the infection wouldn't wane. Eventually, Morrone went into for surgery as a last hope to save her eye. But after it was ineffective, she was forced to go through with an additional surgery in which they actually removed her eye and put in a prosthetic.

I'll spare you the graphic details, but basically when Morrone woke up the next morning after the mishap, her eye was beyond irritated. The dangerous mouth bacteria completely took over hey eye's health, and if it was even close to as painful as it was unsightly, Morrone was seriously suffering.

The reason this story is so important to share is because the incident was entirely preventable. Jenn's new mission is to spread the word about eye safety. Because it's not a mandatory standard to have patients wear protective eyewear, Jenn wants to raise awareness to keep people from running into the same problem she did. Even if you're getting a standard cleaning, the water can spray bacteria from your mouth into your eye and cause the same issues. So always wear sunglasses if your doctor doesn't provide you with certified glasses. Any protection is better than nothing.

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