The fear most people have when having to go to the dentist is just a small issue comparing to what happened to a British man who, years ago had a standard, routine root canal. Even today, the man is forced to relive the day of his surgery, and he will continue to do so every single day he wakes up.
A Encounter with a Dentist Turned into a Mysterious amnesia Case
Most people know the movie Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray who plays a weatherman who wakes up every day, to find it is the 2nd of February and he must report a tedious human interest weather segment.
However, none of us can imagine how this feels in real life. One man, however, lives through it every day. Unfortunately for him, the man, who 15 years ago went to the dentist for an easy surgery, wakes up every day now believing that it’s 14 March 2005, and he has to meet his dentist for an appointment.
Fifteen years ago, during his one-hour root-canal treatment, the man was administered a local anesthetic, and since that moment, he cannot remember anything beyond 90 minutes.
However, the man seems to be fully aware of his identity, as well as his personality. The only problem is that, as stated before, he wakes up each morning, thinking it’s the same day. He manages to get along with this issue using an electronic diary.
How Is this Issue Explained?
The symptoms this unfortunate man has are similar to those associated with a condition called anterograde amnesia. This disease appears when damage to the bilateral hippocampal or diencephalon regions in the brain causes memory loss.
The problem appears when trauma or a specific event makes people lose their ability to create new memories. However, long-term memories from before the moment that traumatized them remain clear.
Is the British Man Faking It?
This apparent case of amnesia was studied with attention, and no presence of brain damage or other changes in the brain have been found. This is the reason why specialists believe the amnesia was caused by a breakdown of protein synthesis in the brain.
The idea of him faking everything was considered. However, doctors who knew the case and studied it for years dismissed that thought.
The case of the man who lost the ability to produce memory from a simple encounter with a dentist has been published in the scientific journal Neurocase.
