极其罕见的医学病例：一名妇女的牙龈长出了毛

极其罕见的医学病例：一名妇女的牙龈长出了毛

From time to time, we all need to pull out the odd hair that's grown out of place. But we're willing to bet that one spot you've never needed to pluck is your gums.

有时候，我们需要拔掉长得不太合适的、奇怪的毛发。但我打赌，你永远不需要拔的地方是你的牙龈。

Just over 10 years ago, a 19-year-old woman met with doctors at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Italy, providing them with a rare case of what's known in the medical field as gingival hirsutism.

就在10多年前，一名19岁的女性在意大利坎帕尼亚大学(University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli)与医生见面，为他们提供了一个罕见的病例，在医学领域被称为牙龈多毛症。

To translate, they found a scattering of eyelash-like hairs protruding from the soft tissues directly behind her upper front teeth.

通过研究，他们在她上门牙后面的软组织里，发现了一堆睫毛状的毛发。

A dig through the literature revealed just five other similar cases – all men – dating back to the 1960s.

通过对相关文献的挖掘，我们发现了另外五个类似的案例——都是男性——可以追溯到20世纪60年代。

The hairs were removed surgically, and following a course of oral contraceptives to help address the imbalance of hormones, the patient returned to a mouth-hair-free life. For a while, at least.

这些毛发通过手术去除，并通过口服避孕药来帮助激素平衡，病人恢复了无口腔毛发的生活。至少有一段时间。

Six years later the unnamed patient returned to the clinic. Having stopped the hormonal medication, her gingival hirsutism had returned.

六年后，这位不知名的病人回到了诊所。停止激素治疗后，她的牙龈多毛症又复发了。

This time the medical team didn't just remove the hairs; they took an opportunity to take a small section of tissue for a closer look under the microscope, finding a hair shaft pushing its way through unusually thickened tissues of her gums.

这一次，医疗小组不仅仅是把头发拔掉;他们抓住机会取了一小块组织，在显微镜下仔细观察，发现一根毛干穿过她牙龈上异常增厚的组织。

A year on and her condition had worsened, with hairs emerging from even more sites around her mouth.

一年过去了，她的病情恶化了，口腔周围的毛发更多了。

There is no clear explanation for this anomalous presence of one relatively common finding and the absence of the other in the oral mucosa, the specialists write.

专家们写道:“在口腔粘膜中，一种相对常见的异常发现，和另一种相对少见的异常发现之间并没有明确的解释。”

There's no word on whether the patient has since returned to the prescribed medication, or if she continues to deal with hair growth among her teeth. It's also unclear if the dental abnormality affects her health in other ways, or is even uncomfortable.

目前还不清楚病人是否已经恢复了药物治疗，或者她是否还在继续处理牙齿上的毛发生长。目前还不清楚牙齿畸形是否在其他方面影响了她的健康，甚至是不舒服。

With one more case in the medical records at least, pathologists are a bit more prepared for the next time a patient appears with hair sprouting where it shouldn't.

至少在医疗记录中还有一个病例，病理学家已经为下一次病人出现在不该出现的地方长出毛发做了更多的准备。

The case study was published in Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology.

该病例研究发表在《口腔外科、口腔医学、口腔病理学、口腔放射学》杂志上。