Oregon Woman Woke Up After Dental Surgery With Foreign Accent

An interesting phenomena recently took place in a small town of Toledo, Oregon state. An Oregonian woman who had a regular dental surgery woke up after undergoing anesthesia to notice an interesting side effect of the dental procedure. Having entered her dentist’s room as a usual Oregonian with a regular Oregonian accent, she woke up as a person speaking with a unique mixture of Northern British, Scottish and somehow Transylvanian type of accent. Doctors call it “foreign accent syndrome”, and this is what Karen Butler, a 56-year-old woman, experienced. And the most amazing thing is: when she talks, she is not aware of her foreign accent, she can notice it only when she is listening to her own voice recorded.

Foreign accent syndrome is a type of a very rare neurological disease, which has been identified only for 60 times since 1941. This syndrome is associated not only with various dental procedures, but also with chronic migraines, various brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, stroke and other very serious health problems. “What happens with foreign accent syndrome to the best of our understanding is that a very, very small part of the speech area is affected so that the normal intonation of speech gets altered,” says Dr. Ted Lowenkopf, medical director of Providence Stroke Center.

Public interest to Karen Butler and what happened to her is increasing, and she has many chances to demonstrate this unique side effect of dental procedure, foreign accent syndrome, in popular TV shows and interviews. She appeared in a TV “Today” show, where she said that after examination the doctors found her physically healthy and fine. She had no other most common side effects like vision problems, problems with coordination, damaged motor skills, etc. According to Karen, doctors keep on saying that there are big chances for her to gain back her original Oregonian accent in the future. Karen is trying to keep positive and says that many Americans actually like listening to foreign types of speeches.

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