Sir, we wish to report an unusual case. A 56-year-old woman presented recently complaining of pain in the lower right side of her mouth. This pain came on suddenly whilst eating roast pheasant the previous day. On examination there was a tender swelling in the gingivae overlying the edentulous alveolar ridge in the lower right quadrant.

The orthopantomogram radiograph taken showed a densely radiopaque circular foreign body in the soft tissues of the right posterior mandible (Fig. 1).

Figure 1
figure 1

An orthopantomogram showing a densely radiopaque circular foreign body in the soft tissues of the right posterior mandible region

Full size image

The area was explored under local anaesthetic and lead shot removed. Evidently the lead shot had been freed from the pheasant meat on chewing and had then become lodged within the gingivae overlying the edentulous alveolar ridge. The dangers of lead ingestion from eating game are well described. However, to the best of our knowledge this is the first report of the lead shot becoming embedded within the gingival tissues.