Foreign body aspirations that are not recognized at the time of aspiration can lead to insidious symptoms that can present a diagnostic challenge. We report the case of a 70-year-old man presenting with postobstructive pneumonia 2 months after aspirating his own tooth during a meal. He had been mistakenly diagnosed with asthma and treated with bronchodilators before a computed tomography scan of the thorax revealed the impacted tooth in his left bronchus. We review the clinical features and microbiology of postobstructive pneumonia and discuss the rationale of its treatment.
Keywords: aspiration; postobstructive pneumonia; tooth.