The rarest anomaly: the gums girls grew up

Researchers from several medical centres in Italy have described a very strange case from his practice.

In 2009, 19-year-old girl went to the doctors with an unusual complaint: her gums were growing hair.

during the inspection, the specialists really discovered brown hairs, resembling eyelashes, growing in the soft tissue directly behind the upper front teeth.

the Appearance of hairs in the oral cavity is an extremely rare phenomenon, its causes still not precisely known.Photo Zhurakivska, et al., Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, 2020.

the Researchers turned to the scientific literature revealed only five such cases since 1960-ies. However, in each of the patients were men, and most of them in different parts of the oral cavity were found in one thread.

Doctors are recognized: with such a meager number of examples it was difficult to understand what kind of disease or the deviation in question and why it arose.

However, additional tests have given a hint.

After hormonal tests and ultrasound examination, doctors revealed the patient for the polycystic ovary syndrome is a dysfunction of the ovaries due to hormonal imbalance (including increased production of androgens and estrogens).

the diagnosis gave scientists the idea that she developed hirsutism. Is the excessive growth of terminal (hard and dark) hair in women and children by male type. The vegetation may appear on the chin, upper chest, upper back and abdomen.

it is Known that the primary hirsutism is hereditary, but the secondary can be due to several factors, the most important of them is the secretion of the male sex hormones androgens.

it was Logical to assume that this is a case in point. Therefore, experts diagnosed hirsutism gums. According to meNIJ, polycystic ovary syndrome, if not was the root cause of the violations, then certainly exacerbated the situation.

the Patient removed the hair in his mouth and prescribed a course of oral contraceptives to correct hormonal imbalance. A few months later the doctors found no signs of new hair growth.

However, six years later, the young woman turned again to the clinic. She stopped taking the hormones, and hirsutism gums back. What is more, the hair appeared on his chin and neck.

this time the doctors not only removed the hair, but also took a small piece of fabric to study it. According to them, the gum tissue was extremely thickened, and through it penetrated the hair shaft.

the Patient was soon asked to appear for examination. However, saw her doctors only a year. The woman’s condition had worsened, and the hair on the upper and lower gums and around the mouth even more.

At the moment there is no information about whether returned the patient to the prescribed treatment.

According to Italian experts, the most plausible explanation of this unusual case is the following. It is known that the tissue that forms the oral cavity during embryonic development derives from the same layer of cells as the skin. Moreover, the glands that normally produce sebum and are almost always associated with hair is also often present in the oral cavity of people.

Probably the same cells that are normally present on the skin and give rise to new hair are in your mouth and can be somehow activated.

Because hormonal treatment has helped the patient, the researchers believe that the hair growth in the oral cavity was caused by polycystic ovary syndrome. While this is the only documented case of this kind, which is described in the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology.

by the Way, before “News.Science” told me about other unusual cases of medical practice. For example, about the woman in the eyes which settled parasitic worms, about a man who died after he licked the dog, and the girl who for 17 years lived with a “twin” inside.

Text: To.Science