How Jennifer Esposito locked up in psychiatric unit after her tooth fell out

Jennifer Esposito was locked up in a psychiatric unit after her tooth fell out. 

Jennifer Esposito was put into a mental hospital after she sought medical help for her fallen out tooth.

The 43-year-old actress - the ex-wife of Bradley Cooper - sought medical help after her gnasher came out while she was shooting the sitcom 'Samantha Who?', 

which ran from 2007 until 2009, but feared for her life when doctors questioned her mental state and sectioned her.

Speaking on 'Oprah: Where Are They Now?', which is set to air over the weekend, the brunette beauty said: "Melissa McCarthy says to me [after her tooth came out on set], 'Something is wrong, you are ill.' I said, 'I know. But what do you do when people aren't listening?' 

"And I went back to the doctor and I said, 'Please, I need help. Please keep me here because I'm jumping out of my skin.' 

I thought I was going to be checked in to the hospital, and they checked me in to the psych ward.

"And I'm thinking, 'How did I get here? This is a problem with my system, this is not a problem with my brain.' I was almost dead - my hair was falling out, my eyelashes fell off, my fingernails were falling off. I was bad."

The 'Crash' star was eventually diagnosed with Coeliac disease - a common digestive condition where a person has an adverse reaction to gluten -

and, although she's now learnt to control her symptoms, she still has days where she's crippled with aches and pains and lacks energy.

She said recently: "For me, it's very much an autoimmune disease. Some days are good, some days I feel pain in every muscle and I feel horrible. It is definitely something I have to pay attention to every day."