After cancer severely damaged a patient’s tongue, doctors reconstructed it using a skin graft. However, because the skin came from a part of the body with hair follicles, hair began to grow inside the patient’s mouth.
“This is hair growing from a skin graft used to reconstruct a tongue,” the article states. The hair growth occurred naturally because “the healthy skin had hair follicles in it when it was placed in the mouth.”
In some cases, patients choose to remove the hair using standard methods like shaving, waxing, or laser treatment. But in this specific case, the hair was left as is.
Though unusual, this is a known side effect of skin grafts that use hairy tissue.
