Ex-miner freed from 33 years of pain after

TOOTH is removed from his EAR

For more than 30 years Stephen Hirst was in constant pain and partially deaf because of
excruciating earache.

But that is all in the past now after doctors found a TOOTH lodged in the former miner's ear.

Now, Stephen can sleep unhindered by the intense headaches that plagued him.

But medical staff remain mystified as to how the tooth came to be jammed in the 47-year-
old's ear canal in the first place. Especially as he had all his teeth taken out some time ago.

Relief at last: Stephen Hirst (pictured) suffered decades of pain, infections and deafness until
doctors found the cause of the problem - a tooth lodged in his ear

He first complained of pain in his right ear when he was a teenager and was forced to attend
countless hospital appointments in an attempt to discover the cause of his mystery condition.

'I've been plagued by earache since I was around 14,' he said.

'The pain wouldn't go away and I couldn't concentrate because it was always there. I used to
use a lot of cotton wool and cotton buds and was prescribed antibiotics because I was always
getting infections.

'When I was younger I used to just sit and bang my head on the wall because it hurt that
much.   

'When I was younger I used to just sit and bang my head on the
wall because it hurt that much. I would be screaming in pain,
that's not exaggerating'
'I would be screaming in pain, that's not exaggerating. It was a sharp jabbing pain and it just
wouldn't go away. I've lost count of the times I have been examined but no one spotted the
tooth.

'I went again and again to the ear, nose and throat clinic. I don't know why but they never
came across the tooth. I decided to have one last try to sort it out and I booked an appointment
at the Royal Hallamshire [Hospital] in Sheffield.
'They were determined to get to the bottom of the problem. The nurse put a suction tube in my
ear and cleaned it thoroughly, then she had a go with a microscope probe and finally she used
some tweezers and got it out.

The cause of the pain: After 33 years of pain, doctors finally found a tooth jammed in Mr
Hirst's ear canal

'She didn't say anything at first, she just stood there looking amazed. Then she said to me:
'Have you lost any teeth lately?' I said I'd not had any teeth in my head for years.

'The nurse said she couldn't believe what she had found in my ear and showed me the tooth.
She said in 20 years she's never seen anything like it.

'I would think it's a first tooth, looking at it, because it can't be big enough to be an adult
tooth. I think it's a bottom tooth, one of the front incisors.'

Mr Hirst, from Sheffield, who has two children, had to give up work as a miner 15 years ago
partly due to his ear condition.

He said he was baffled to how it got there but the most likely explanation was 'that I pushed it
in when I was a kid or something.'

But he speculated: 'At school one day I was swinging between two desks.

'I fell and smashed the back of my ear. It might have happened then.'

A tooth had become embedded deep in Mr Hirst's ear canal. The most likely explanation is he
pushed it in there as a child. His right ear drum has disintegrated but the pain has gone

Mr Hirst said he would be keeping the tooth as a souvenir

He added: 'I can hardly hear anything in my right ear, the eardrum has disintegrated but the
main things is the ear ache has now cleared up completely.It's absolutely brilliant. Why the
tooth wasn't spotted all those years ago I will never know but I'm just grateful to the hospital
staff for finding the tooth now, better late than never.'

His wife Denise, 43, added: 'Stephen has suffered from ear ache and infections ever since I
have known him.

'It's marvellous that after all these years he has been cured. It's an amazing story.'

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