A CASE of foreign body involving the antrum is presented because it illustrates that the persistence of a foreign body in a nasal accessory sinus always leads to chronic suppurative sinusitis and this, in turn, to suppuration elsewhere.
Schroder1 stated that foreign bodies may enter through the nose or through openings in the antral walls caused by injuries or by dental trauma. The latter may be voluntary, surgical or accidental in extraction of a tooth or treatment of dental roots.
He stated further that the behavior of these foreign bodies in the sinus differs. Healing like that observed where foreign bodies are lodged in muscle and connective tissue does not occur. The most probable defense reaction would consist in an effort to expel the foreign thing. The literature contains reports of cases in which small foreign bodies have been expelled through the maxillary ostium, with more or less marked inflammatory