Britt Jones
Jenny McCarthy has detailed her horror health scare which led to her teeth ‘falling out’, after a bout of reoccurring mouth infections.
McCarthy, a former Playboy model and famously attributed her fame to Hugh Hefner after he introduced her to the entertainment world, has had a tough time recently.
The 53-year-old revealed that she’s only just been able to start eating during Thanksgiving after being forced to stay away from consuming things due to her poor health.
In a heartfelt interview with PEOPLE, she revealed all that she’s been going through.
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"I've had nine surgeries this year, on my mouth," McCarthy said, sharing how it was one infection that 'turned into another and another’ and then growths began to appear on her eyeballs.
She shared that the ordeal originated with a failed ceramic dental implant, which led to her teeth and her implants ‘falling out’ before she had to undergo a surgery to ‘dig’ into her jawbone to chip away at it. It was there that they discovered a ‘deep bone infection’.
While implants have a 95 per cent success rate when installed, according to the American Academy of Implant Dentistry, there’s always a chance something could go wrong.
Whether it’s an infection, failed integration, the result of tooth grinding or smoking, there are things that happen which can lead to the implants needing to be taken out, or re-implanted.
The impact of this has been major, as McCarthy revealed she has ‘been on antibiotics for a year, and have had to eat soft foods only’ as not to disturb her mouth.
Her revelation comes after her and husband Donnie Wahlberg’s annual holiday card on November 25 via an Instagram collaboration, which saw the pair looking pretty trim in swimwear. But instead of attributing her figure to a new routine, she claimed it was a side effect of not being able to eat.
"I had two more mouth surgeries even after that photo was taken," she admitted, calling herself ‘unlucky’.
"As of now, I'm able to chew again, but every time we thought it had cleared up, it came back again, I'd be in massive pain with my jaw swelling up, and at the same time I was getting these growths popping up on my eyeballs," she added. "People should actually feel a little sorry for me!"
However, she said she’s (hopefully) in the clear now and able to enjoy more than mashed potatoes and yams.