Teeth do not always develop or erupt in their usual position along the dental arches. A series of clinical reports describes teeth found in unusual locations, including an eye socket, a salivary duct, beneath the tongue and in the nasal cavity. Doctors use the term “ectopic” for a tooth that erupts away from its normal site; a “supernumerary” tooth is an additional tooth beyond the usual set. A tooth can be both.
One case, published in Ophthalmology in June 2026, involved a 16-year-old boy in Madurai, southern India. He sought care for a painless swelling in his upper left eyelid that had appeared about a month earlier. Imaging showed a tooth-like structure extending from the roof of the eye socket into the eyelid. Surgeons removed a mature canine and ruled out a teratoma, a rare tumour that can contain tissues such as teeth, hair or bone.
Another unusual finding emerged during treatment of a 39-year-old man who had experienced recurring painful swelling beneath the left side of his jaw for ten years, particularly after eating acidic foods. A scan suggested stones in both submandibular salivary ducts. Surgeons removed a stone from the left duct, but the larger mass on the right proved to be a tooth, identified as a likely baby canine lodged in the duct. The discovery was incidental: the patient’s symptoms came from the stone on the left. The case was reported in February 2026, and he had no symptoms six months after surgery.
The report’s authors proposed that the baby canine may have become trapped as the salivary gland and its duct developed during fetal life. They stressed that this is a hypothesis. The tooth was less mineralised than a normal tooth, with low calcium and phosphorus levels and a porous surface.
A separate report from Malaysia described a 34-year-old woman who had felt a slight pain beneath her tongue while chewing for about 20 years. An X-ray showed a calcified mass lying horizontally under the tongue. It was removed under local anaesthesia. The authors said its shape and structure could indicate a supernumerary canine.
Ectopic teeth have also been found in the sinuses and nose. In a case reported in 2015, a 26-year-old man being assessed for recurring right-sided sinusitis was found to have a wisdom tooth inside his right maxillary sinus. It was ectopic, but not supernumerary: it was a regular tooth in the wrong location.
A February 2026 report described a 13-year-old girl with a history of surgery for a cleft lip and palate who had a loose tooth in her left nostril. The tooth, an upper left lateral incisor, rested on the floor of the nasal cavity and was removed with forceps under regional anaesthesia. The report noted that nasal teeth are rare and can occur in the context of developmental abnormalities.
In another case, reported in March 2026, a 27-year-old woman had a supernumerary tooth growing from the hard palate towards the floor of the left nasal cavity. It caused a foreign-body sensation and foul-smelling discharge from one nostril. A scan showed the tooth’s position and limited attachment to the palate. Because of its location and the possibility of difficulty removing it through the nose, surgeons used an incision beneath the upper lip to extract it intact. Her symptoms resolved without complications.
Nasal teeth may cause obstruction, chronic discharge, facial pain, headaches or repeated nosebleeds, but some are found incidentally. Imaging, particularly CT scanning, can confirm the diagnosis and help doctors assess how a tooth is attached and choose an extraction route. Endoscopic removal through the nose is often used, though the best approach depends on the tooth’s position.
The origins of supernumerary teeth in the nasal cavity are not fully understood. Proposed explanations include developmental abnormalities that direct a tooth bud towards the palate or nasal floor. Cleft lip and palate are recognised as a context associated with increased risk, while genetic factors, early facial or dental injury, infection, an obstruction to normal eruption and dental cysts have also been suggested.
A review published in 2025 identified 14 reported cases of loose supernumerary teeth just above the nasal floor, without contact with bone. A separate literature review published in March 2026 gathered 132 cases of supernumerary teeth in the nasal cavity reported between 1990 and 2019. The authors noted that more incidental findings in recent decades may reflect improved detection, including the use of CT scans, rather than a true rise in occurrence.
Sources: Le Monde Sciences.