Woman's Cheek Is in Pain for Three Weeks After Eating a Salad — Here's What Happened
Mar. 29 2023, Published 5:33 p.m. ET
Well, here’s your reminder that sometimes eating healthy can actually be a bad thing. TikTok user Alexa Hendricks (@achendricks) recently shared a video documenting how eating a salad pained her mouth for weeks. And not only was she beyond baffled about what had happened, but so were the two dental offices she visited hoping for some reprieve.
Keep reading to learn about the somewhat common salad ingredient that compromised her mouth for almost a month.
TikTok user @achendricks says she had a marigold stuck in her cheek for three weeks. Here's how it happened.
“A marigold seed was stuck in my cheek for three weeks,” exclaimed Alexa at the start of her now-viral video.
She explained that after eating a salad that contained edible flowers, she felt a sharp sting in her cheek. Fast forward to a few days later and her parotid gland had swelled up and was in pain.
Unaware of what was causing this ache, Alexa went to the dentist to get some answers. But unfortunately, they were just as befuddled as her.
Next, she visited an oral surgeon's office, where the staff was also stumped. “They believed it was just trauma to the cheek,” she wrote in her video.
Alexa was prescribed mouthwash and began taking ibuprofen for the pain. She updated her followers in several videos over the course of a few weeks about how she was doing.
After a while, she appeared to have convinced herself that the pain was gone and she was fine. But deep down, she knew that just wasn't the case.
It just so happened that later that day, the puzzle pieces finally came together. Alexa discovered that a marigold seed had been lodged in her cheek all this time.
She stealthily retrieved it using her two fingers and soon after, she was feeling back to normal.
TikTok naturally had so many thoughts about her peculiar experience. "French fries would never," teased one user. Another commented: "NEW FEAR UNLOCKED."
As Alexa confirmed in a follow-up comment, an x-ray had been taken of her cheek. But strangely enough, it didn't detect the seed.
She also noted that the restaurant that served her the salad was "very apologetic" and was paying for her medical bills.
While we're glad to hear that she is doing better, this story does give us the chills. Perhaps we'll just stick to admiring flowers for now as they seem to cause harm when consumed.
