Actor Casey Affleck was left with a bloodied tongue during a recent lunch date, after a bad trip to the dentist left his whole mouth numb.

The Gone Baby Gone star didn't realise until it was too late that his tongue had become part of his meal.

He explains, "They gave me this gigantic needle and put it in and first it was like this little pinch, like when you usually get Novocaine at the dentist, and then, I'm not exaggerating, it felt like a lightning bolt had gone from the top of my brain all the way out to my tongue. I screamed, which I wasn't happy about, and the dentist said, 'Oh I must have hit a nerve, I'm sorry'.

"Turns out he had struck a nerve with the needle and then my entire head went numb, like everything. My neck was numb, this side of my face was numb, I couldn't feel anything in my mouth."

He continues, "So after that I went out and had lunch, I was hungry. I couldn't feel anything, but I still needed to eat and I noticed there was some blood on my food. I realised that I had been chewing on my tongue, not feeling, I had no feeling in my tongue and I was just chomping on it like it was piece of the meal."