Adriana Cardoso thought her daughter was joking when she claimed she felt like there were “something moving around” inside her gums. A few days later, mother and daughter found out it was no laughing matter, but a horrific oral condition that produced a shocking extraction.

The diagnosis from a flabbergasted Brazilian dentist? Oral myiasis, meaning an infection of fly larvae (maggots) inside the 10-year-old girl’s gums, according to a March 2015 report from Medical Daily.

“There were 15 maggots in her mouth, so we videoed the removal for our records as it is a rare occurrence,” a spokesman for the dental clinic said, according to Medical Daily. “We also wanted to show the girl’s family what had happened and warn others.”

Cardoso said daughter Ana had complained for a few days about the pain and the odd “tingling” sensation and decided a trip to the dentist was in order, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

“I know my daughter and she is not one to make up stories or lie, so eventually I took her to see a dentist,” Cardoso explains in the Daily Mail account. “I couldn’t believe it when they said she had a disease and then started pulling the maggots out.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that myiasis occurs usually in tropical and subtropical areas, noting that “people traveling with untreated and open wounds are more at risk for getting myiasis.”
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