Woman grows hairs out of her gums in extremely rare medical case

ROME, Italy: From time to time, we all need to pull out the odd hair that’s grown out of place. But we’re willing to bet that one spot you’ve never needed to pluck is your gums.

Just over 10 years ago, a 19-year-old woman met with doctors at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Italy, providing them with a rare case of what’s known in the medical field as gingival hirsutism. “In 2009, we reported a case of a young woman who presented with hairs on the sulcular epithelium of the retroincisor palatal papilla,” the specialists reported in their recent case study. To translate, they found a scattering of eyelash-like hairs protruding from the soft tissues directly behind her upper front teeth. A dig through the literature revealed just five other similar cases – all men – dating back to the 1960s. It’s impossible to know just how many have been afflicted with this condition throughout history. With so few recorded examples, doctors have a hard time even figuring out why this happens.