Foreign bodies are more frequent in children and usual location is aerodigestive tract. In adult patients, foreign bodies are usually associated with trauma or mental disorders. Traumatic foreign bodies could remain undetected until the appearance of later complications.

Infratemporal fossa is a topographic region defined laterally by the mandible, medially by the lateral wall of the pharynx and cranially by the skull base. Contents of the fossa are chiefly pterygoid muscles, mandibular nerve, and maxillary artery. Foreign bodies in this region are very rare, usually associated with penetrating injury through the skin or oropharynx.

In our case we present a 58-year-old woman with traumatic penetration of a wooden stick through the nasolabial fold. Severe pain, trismus, conductive hearing loss as well as slight middle otitis developed as a complication. Regular MRI scans were performed to monitor the tendency of the foreign body to move inside the tissue. Luckily, the foreign body spontaneously excluded itself from the infratemporal fossa to the nasopharynx, letting the patient fully recover without any surgical intervention.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest