Man loses memory after visiting dentist!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Medical researchers stumbled upon a 'one of its kind' memory loss case, in which a 38-year-old otherwise fit and healthy man lost his memory after a local anesthetic and root-canal treatment at a dental clinic.

It has been a decade since he last made his visit to that dental clinic but he still wakes up each day thinking it is the day of his dental appointment. He can only remember up to 90 minutes each day. His symptoms are similar to those depicted in movies, such as 'Memento' and 'Groundhog Day'.

As of now, there is no evidence that the treatment at the dentist can be blamed for his condition, but University of Leicester psychologists have described this as a unique case to science.

Researcher Gerald Burgess said that one of their reasons for writing up this individual's case was that they had never seen anything like this before in their assessment clinics.

He is now appealing for people who know of someone who might have suffered similar symptoms of memory loss, or medical or allied health professionals working with someone like this, to contact him in order to build up knowledge and evidence in this field of study.

He said that their experience was that none of their colleagues in neurology, psychiatry and clinical neuropsychology could explain this case or had seen anything like it themselves before.

The patient is fully aware of his identity and his personality did not change, but every day the man thinks it is the day of his dental appointment. He has to manage his life through an electronic diary and access to prompts.

The article was published in journal Neurocase.

(With Agency inputs)