Original source - ati

Doctors diagnosed her with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which results from a sex hormone imbalance and can cause excessive hair growth. She was given birth control pills to regulate her hormone levels and underwent oral surgery to remove the gum hairs.

This seemed to have worked — at first. There was no recurring hair growth for several years, but in 2015, the gum hair returned and had spread to her chin and neck, as well.

Since this is an exceptionally uncommon condition, doctors decided to take advantage of her case by taking a small tissue sample from her gums. A microscope revealed that the gum tissue the hair shafts were pushing through was unusually thick.

As the researchers theorize in their study, the mucosal tissue in the mouth is closely related to the tissues that comprise our skin while we’re an embryo. This could potentially explain why these hair cells were activated in the woman’s mouth.

In fact, having sebaceous glands — glands that secrete an oily substance on the skin near hair follicles — in your mouth is entirely common; having hair in the mouth, however, is not. The study’s authors noted that this dichotomy remains very much a mystery.