The Scary Infection That Impacted Jenny McCarthy's Life For Over A Year

Jenny McCarthy spent 2025 living with a frustrating, scary, and lasting medical condition, according to an exclusive interview with People. And it all started quite normally when she replaced a natural tooth via dental implant.

Statistically, dental implant surgery typically results in a successful outcome for most patients. In fact, a 2021 survey published in the Journal of Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery showed that only 3.11% of dental implants fail. Unfortunately, McCarthy was one of the few patients who wound up experiencing serious problems with her dental implant, which in turn led to major health problems.

As she explained in People, the overarching issue that started her troubles was an unresolved infection of the dental bone that began to spread. As the infection progressed, it took a toll on her mouth (and her life): "My teeth were falling out, implants falling out." (This is a great illustration of how teeth falling out can mean more than you might suspect.) Although McCarthy didn't share the exact diagnosis behind the unpleasant side effects she endured, one type of infection called peri-implantitis could be a possible cause of her woes.

Dental equipment manufacturer BIOLASE notes that peri-implantitis begins in the gums and can eventually damage the surrounding soft and hard tissues. A common red flag of potential peri-implantitis is a loose implant, as well as oral discomfort. Once found, peri-implantitis can be treated with antibiotics and, if necessary, surgical interventions to restore the integrity of affected tissues.

McCarthy spoke in People about both taking antibiotics "for a year" and requiring nine surgeries to achieve a desired outcome. In the meantime, however, she experienced a surprising side effect of a mouth infection: growths on her eyeballs.

The connection between an oral infection and eyeball "growths" isn't as far-fetched as it might appear. A cosmetic dentist, Dr. Juddy Lin, took to Instagram to discuss the relationship between the oral cavity, nasal cavity, and eye socket after hearing about McCarthy's condition. As Dr. Lin explained in a video, "Bacteria from your mouth can actually travel from your bone to your sinuses and ooze out to other area [sic] of your eyes." (This would make McCarthy's bacterial eye infection different from a viral eye infection.)

What does the description "eyeball growths" mean, though? Colgate may have an answer: orbital cellulitis, which is infection and inflammation around the eyes. Orbital cellulitis usually happens after bacteria travels from the sinus into the orbital area. And since a dental infection can move to the sinus, the bacteria behind the original infection may eventually get to the eye and cause problems.

Again, McCarthy didn't explicitly name orbital cellulitis as the reason for her eyeball growths. But she did draw a connection between the progression of her implant failure due to infection and eye issues when she said, "I had one infection that turned into another and another, and then I had these growths show up on my eyeballs."

Though McCarthy had a rough road with her implants, she seemed confident that the worst was behind her. In fact, she added that she was looking forward to ditching the soft food diet she had to follow because of her dental difficulties.