An apparently healthy 76-year-old man suffering from shaky teeth and jaw pain was devastated to discover his pain was the result of advanced prostate cancer.
The man visited a dentist who evaluated his wobbly lower left premolar and decided extracting the tooth was the best course of action.
But in the weeks after the tooth was removed, the man’s jaw continued to swell.
Worried, the man returned to the dentist for a follow-up appointment where a CT scan revealed he had a cancerous lesion in his jaw.
The medical report of the patient’s case, published in the Australian dental magazinerevealed that additional tests confirmed that the lesion was a secondary tumor, which had spread from his prostate.
“Prostate cancer, like many other cancers, can metastasize to the jaw,” said Dr. Andrej Bozic, oral surgeon at Dentum. the sun.
“This is because the jaw has a rich blood supply and active bone marrow, making it a favorable place for metastatic cancer cells to settle and grow,” he added.
The case study published in the Australian Dental Journal revealed that after further testing it was confirmed that he had metastatic prostate cancer that had spread to his jaw.

Six-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy explained that his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2023 came “completely out of the blue” and that he only suffered shoulder and rib pain. A scan revealed the cyclist had stage four prostate cancer which had spread to his bones.
Metastatic prostate cancer is relatively rare in the jaw, but when it occurs, it is usually a sign that the cancer has spread widely, the case study authors explain.
This is also true if the disease is detected in other areas of the upper body.
Six-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy revealed his diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer late last year, explaining that the only signs of the disease had been pain in his shoulder and ribs.
A scan revealed tThe cyclist had stage four prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
Reporters on the new case stressed that dentists must remain vigilant when dental problems do not resolve within a few weeks, especially in older patients, when the incidence of other diseases, such as cancer, is more common.
Jaw cancer is a rare type of head and neck cancer that usually develops when an oral cancer spreads to the jaw, but it can also spread from other parts of the body.
According to Cancer Research UK, around 12,759 new cases of head and neck cancer occur in the UK each year.
The main symptoms include pain or swelling in the gums and jaw, loosening of the teeth, poor healing of the gums after dental work and numbness in the jaw, the charity explains.
But prostate cancer can also spread to bones in other parts of the body.
Cancer Research explains that prostate cancer most often spreads to the bones, lymph nodes, liver, and lungs.
In the UK, around one in eight men will have prostate cancer in their lifetime and more than 12,000 men die from the disease each year, according to Prostate Cancer UK.
Need to urinate more frequently than usual and especially at night, sudden need to urinate, weak flow, blood in the urine and problems maintaining an erection are signs of prostate cancer.