A 16-year-old teenager living in Guanabacoa, Havana, was treated for a severe toothache in her own home by her aunt, who used a nail machine to remove a bandage during a blackout.
The scene was captured in a video circulating on social media and sparked outrage among thousands of users due to the poor medical service in the country.
The minor's grandmother, Mariza Concepción Sarmiento, explained that before resorting to that makeshift procedure, they took the young woman to the emergency clinic in the municipality, popularly known as "El machaco," where the on-duty doctor informed them that they had nothing to treat the tooth or to remove the bandage.
The health center sent the pain-ridden patient back home without pain relief, without any kind of care, and without hope of a future appointment.
"They sent her home with nothing, without giving her anything, not even a little water, because they say they no longer know what a medication for a toothache or a tooth is," the grandmother recounted in the video.
In desperation, the minor's aunt, Evelin Pineda Concepción, a human rights activist and member of the Opposition Movement for a New Republic (MONR), asked a neighbor to lend her a nail-making machine, and with it, she proceeded to remove the bandage, under which, according to family members, there was decomposing cotton.
"That's already rotten in there," said the grandmother. "Your aunt looked for a solution; she asked the neighbor to lend her the nail repair machine, and with that, she's removing the bandage to ease the girl's pain because there's no other medication to give her or anything else to do," she commented.
This is the medical power they say exists here in Cuba. The medical power where they claim there is everything, but here there is nothing," the elderly woman expressed.
Health professionals who reacted to the video warned about the risks of the procedure. A Cuban dentist revalidated in the United States cautioned that the nail drill, if not sterilized, could increase the risk of infection and lead to facial cellulitis.
She needs to have it extracted. That tooth is going to cause problems again even if she takes antibiotics now, if it is not removed, he wrote.
Another Cuban health professional described in the comments the daily reality of healthcare centers, particularly dental consultations. "Many times I extracted teeth using the light from a cellphone, or spent eight hours on duty with only one cartridge of anesthesia. What we did was magic," she said.
A crisis that is recurring throughout the island
At the end of August, a mother in Baracoa, Guantánamo, reported that her young daughter could not receive care at the clinic due to a lack of cotton. She was sent home in pain and without treatment.
In September 2025, a Cuban in Cárdenas, Matanzas, extracted a tooth at home with pliers due to the inability to obtain a dental appointment.
The collapse of oral health reflects a deep health crisis in Cuba. In August 2026, the government admitted that only 30% of the basic medication supply was available, with 461 out of 651 essential drugs out of stock.
The Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, had acknowledged in February of that year that the system was “on the brink of collapse”.
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