DRILLER CHILLER; Ouch...horror at dentist.

A terrified patient was left in agony when a dentist's drill exploded in her mouth.

Susan Robertson, 31, almost http://kikfo27k.livejournal.com/1572.html choked as a washer flew intoher

throat.

And particles from the drill were blasted inside her head, damaging

her EYE.

Now Susan is suing her dentist.

Susan, from Govanhill, Glasgow, said yesterday: "I heard a

bang then felt as though I had been shot.

"When I got home, I was in a state of severe shock and near to

tears."

Dentist Eleanor Bruce, of AWS Swanson, of Kenmure Street,

Pollokshields, was doing a repair to a broken tooth when the horror

accident happened.

She was standing in for Susan's usual dentist, Alastair

Swanson.

Susan says she had to pull the drill parts from her mouth herself

because Eleanor was in such shock.

Next day, Susan got a call from Eleanor saying that a ball-bearing

from the drill head was missing and she should go to hospital.

By then, the effects of the anaesthetic had worn off.

Susan was in terrible pain and her right eye was weeping. She

underwent extensive X-rays but there was no sign of the ball bearing.

When pain from the eye persisted, doctors discovered she had a torn

retina and found metal shavings behind the eye.

Further X-rays have shown her right sinus could be seriously

damaged and she has been referred to specialists.

Susan, who works for a computer company, added: "It has been a

physically and mentally scarring experience.

"I do not know if I could ever go back to a dentist

again."

Campbell Robb, spokes-man for the British Dental Association, said:

"This is a very unusual case - the first we have heard of.

"Dentists always carry out regular checks on their

equipment."

It is understood that the dental practice have sent the drill to

the manufacturers for examination.

Eleanor Bruce declined to comment.