A 48-year-old Colombian woman died after allegedly swallowing and choking on her dental prosthesis while sleeping.

Doctors always recommend removing dentures at night, to avoid any kind of accidents, a piece of advice that María Farías Guzmán, a 48-year-old woman from Colombia’s Armenia region did not follow. The woman reportedly went to sleep with her dental prosthesis in her mouth, only to accidentally swallow it, and become lodged in her throat somehow. Maria’s family would later tell investigators that they heard unusual noises coming from the woman’s room, so they decided to check on her, only to find that she wasn’t breathing.

Photo: Diana Polekhina/Unsplash

María Farías Guzmán was rushed to Hospital del Sur in her home city of Quindio, where doctors attempted to resuscitate the woman and clear her airways. Unfortunately, their efforts were unsuccessful. A “respiratory tract obstruction” was pronounced as the cause of death.

“Her relatives became aware of the situation while she was sleeping, but she arrived at the hospital with no vital signs and staff performed resuscitation maneuvers and procedures to clear her airways, but she did not respond,” coronel William Alberto Zubieta Pardo, of the Quindio police department, told journalists.

Chocking on dental prostheses is considered extremely rare, so this case caused a lot of commotion online, with many people asking for more details on how it could have happened. More details are expected as soon as the full forensic report is published, but in the meantime, better put those dentures in a glass of water at night, just to be sure.