He swallowed his false tooth by accident and went to his dentist for a replacement, but his dentist refused to do so.

Earlier in June, pawnshop owner Mr Ng Zhen Ying went for a denture fitting at the National Dental Centre (NDC). At that time, he said that the dentist warned him against eating overly hard foods as the dentures were fragile.

However, after wearing the dentures for a month, Mr Ng said two of the false teeth fell out, reported Shin Min Daily News.

The 56-year-old returned to the NDC, where the same dentist carried replaced the missing teeth.

The replacements were short-lived, said Mr Ng.

Two months later, as Mr Ng was having his lunch consisting of rice and various dishes, he realised that one of his teeth which had fallen out before had gone missing. As the other replaced tooth were still in place, he ignored the missing tooth and continued eating.

However, while brushing his teeth that night, he realised that the second replaced tooth had gone missing. To his horror, he realised that he had probably swallowed it during lunch.

He headed back to NDC for a consultation, but was told not to worry as the swallowed tooth had no significant danger to his health and that his body would naturally excrete the swallowed tooth.

The dentist then said that it was all right even if the two teeth were not replaced and evened out the gaps on the dentures where the teeth fell out so that Mr Ng would feel more comfortable wearing the prosthetic.

Mr Ng told the Chinese daily: "With two teeth missing, there's now a big hole in my mouth and food gets lodged there easily. I plan to lodge a complain."

When interviewed by Shin Min, a NDC spokesperson said that providing excellent customer service is one of the company's goals and it will review the matter seriously.