'Creepy' X-Ray Revealing Tooth Inside Chin Terrifies the Internet

A man who shared an unusual x-ray that shows he has a tooth inside his chin has wowed the internet.

On Wednesday, Charles Collins from Louisville, Kentucky—who uses the Reddit handle u/super9mega—posted the image with the caption "There's a tooth in my chin," on the forum r/mildlyinteresting where it now has more than 49,000 upvotes.

Amazed by the unusual x-ray, internet users headed to the comments to share their thoughts.

"Go brush your chin," joked one commenter. "Cool! (Unless it hurts, then that part is not cool)," said another Redditor.

But Collins explained that the rogue tooth was not in fact causing him any discomfort and wrote: "The reason it's still there is because it would be more effort and it seems to be not doing anything. I didn't even know until I went to the dentist."

According to Science Direct, embedded teeth are those that have failed to erupt and instead remain completely or partially covered by bone, soft tissue or both.

There are lots of potential causes for non-eruption of teeth—the most common being lack of space and obstruction. Where the unerupted tooth is not causing any issues, they often do not require treatment.

Occasionally, however, a dentist or orthodontist may suggest treatment options, including extraction, to allow normal eruption or orthodontic movement of the teeth.

Collins told Newsweek: "My dentist did not, but other commenters seem to think [the tooth's failure to erupt was] because my mouth is overall crowded and caused it to not be able to get up into the rest of the teeth, causing it to move and eventually go sideways."

In another comment on the now-viral Reddit post, one woman shared her experience of the issue. She said: "I'm an orthodontic assistant. I see things like this all the time. It's always interesting!

"I think I've only seen like 3 or 4 completely horizontal teeth like that (not counting wisdom teeth, that's more common than other teeth), our office always tried to do everything we can to "retrieve" an un-erupted tooth similar to this, usually through something we call surgical exposure which involves pulling the tooth into place with a small chain that attaches to braces and overlay wires."

But when it comes to the tooth in the viral image, she said it was most likely it would be left alone: "Placement like yours is basically a lost cause to try and correct," she said: "It would do more damage than good."

Other Redditors felt a little strange about the x-ray image. One commenter said: "It's making my skin crawl for some reason," but others simply saw the lighter side, making jokes about the picture.

"Guess you could call that an underbite," said one commenter. Another added: "It's like how shirts have extra buttons sewn inside of them." One Redditor said: "Creepy. I like it."

Another commenter said that the unexpected tooth could be re-named a "chooth," while another saw the bright side and wrote: "Well it probably doesn't have any cavities."

When it comes to correcting the rogue tooth, Collins says that they have agreed it is better where it is for now: "If it was noticed early I could have had a chain pull it up but for now, they would have to do a full surgery, so they will monitor it and see if its moving. If it's stable then they will keep it where it is and I'll just forever have a tooth in my chin."

UPDATE 05/16/2022, 04:45 a.m. EDT: This article was updated with an image and comments from Charles Collins.