The Hidden Risk of Aspirated & Swallowed Instruments in Implant Placement

Foreign body aspiration and ingestion during dental procedures represent a persistent, well-documented complication category — one that implant placement, with its array of small screws, drivers, and abutment components, is not immune to.

National poison control data continues to log foreign body ingestion and aspiration incidents each year, and the dental literature has taken a specific interest in cataloguing how often these events occur during dental treatment itself. A 2016 review by Hou et al. analyzed 617 documented cases of accidental aspiration and ingestion during dental procedures, concluding that thorough clinical documentation of these events is necessary — a signal that the profession does not yet treat them as rare enough to overlook.

More recent case series reinforce the point. Abusamaan et al. reported five clinical cases of swallowed and aspirated dental prostheses and instruments, proposing a management algorithm for when such events occur. Araujo et al. similarly reviewed the literature on aspiration of dental items and proposed their own management protocol.

Key takeaway: Aspiration and ingestion of dental instruments and components is a recurring, peer-reviewed complication category — not an isolated anecdote — and the literature consistently calls for both careful procedural control and a clear response protocol when it happens.

See the full research library for the complete set of references.