What to do if a fish bone is stuck deep in the throat

Many people like to eat fish. As we all know, fish is not only delicious but also nutritious. However, while enjoying the delicious food, many people are prone to small accidents, such as fish bones stuck in the throat. If not handled properly in the first time, it may even endanger the person's life. So at this time, what should we do to solve this problem? Here are some tips for treating fish bones stuck in the throat.

What to do if a fish bone gets stuck in your throat

First, we need to figure out how the fish bone gets stuck in the throat: the first place where the fish bone gets stuck is in the "glossoepiglottic valley" where the root of the tongue and the epiglottis meet; the second place is the tonsillar crypts; the third place is deeper, in the "pyriform crypts" on both sides of the throat. Fish bones stuck in the "vallecula of the tongue and epiglottis" and "tonsillar crypts" can usually be seen and removed with the naked eye, while fish bones stuck in the "pyriform crypts" can only be found with a laryngoscope, esophagoscope or esophageal barium fluoroscopy.

When eating fish, people often get fish bones stuck in their throats due to carelessness. Some people swallow rice, feed or swallow long leeks with big mouthfuls, intending to flush the fish bones down their throats. This method is not safe, as it may cause the fish bones to pierce the throat and esophagus, causing serious consequences.

If a fish bone gets stuck in your throat, you should go to the hospital immediately to treat it (the ENT and Otolaryngology departments of all hospitals across the country have various instruments). If the instrument cannot detect it, please refer to the following methods.

1. Massage the throat reflex area on the foot (between the big toe and second toe, next to Taichong) for about one minute.

2. Drink olive pit water. Grinding olive pits into powder and drinking it with water can remove fish bones stuck in the throat.

3. Soften with vitamin C. If a small fish bone gets stuck in your throat, you can take a vitamin C tablet, hold it in your mouth, and swallow it slowly. After a few minutes, the fish bone will soften and disappear.

4. One clove of garlic and appropriate amount of white sugar. Peel and cut the garlic and stuff them into both nostrils, swallow a spoonful of white sugar without drinking water. If it doesn't work, swallow a spoonful of white sugar. This method is effective for treating fish bones stuck in the throat.

5. Orange peel can dissolve fish bones. When a fish bone gets stuck in your throat, you can peel off the orange peel, cut it into narrow pieces, hold it in your mouth and swallow it slowly to dissolve the fish bone.

6. Ask someone to help remove the fish bone. That is, ask someone to press the front part of the affected tongue with a spoon or toothbrush handle, and carefully observe the root of the tongue, tonsils, posterior pharyngeal wall, etc. under bright light, try to find the fishbone, and then remove it with tweezers or chopsticks.

7. A wonderful way to soften fish bones. If no bone spur is found through observation, and the patient still feels like a fishbone stuck in the throat, a simple recipe can be used to soften the bone spur: 10 grams of Smilax glabra, 3 black plums, 15 grams of sugar, a little vinegar, add water to boil the soup, and swallow it slowly.

8. If a fish bone gets stuck in your throat due to drinking well water and vinegar doesn’t work, you can drink a bowl of well water the next morning to remove the fish bone.

9. Drink duck saliva. Take a live duck, hold its feet upside down to let it cluck and drool. Use a clean cup or bowl to catch the saliva, drink it slowly to moisten your throat, and the tiny fish bones will dissolve quickly.

10. Use vomiting method to spit out fish bones. If the above method is ineffective, try to make the patient vomit so that the fish bone can be vomited out.

Some folk remedies are more deadly than the fishbone itself

Doctors believe that folk remedies for dealing with fish bones stuck in the throat, such as swallowing rice, eating leeks, and picking the throat to induce vomiting, are more deadly than the fish bones themselves.

Swallowing rice or leeks is even more dangerous. Under pressure, the fish bone will be "pushed" from the throat into the trachea and then to the esophagus. During the process, it will not only cause scratches, but also make the fish bone penetrate deeper and deeper. If it unfortunately punctures a blood vessel, it is very dangerous. Picking the throat to induce vomiting may aggravate damage to the digestive tract. If too much force is used, muscle contraction may also cause foreign objects to get stuck tighter.

If you try to deal with it by eating steamed buns, not only will the fishbone not be removed, but the swallowing action will cause the fishbone to penetrate deeper into the body. Eating steamed buns or drinking vinegar will make treatment more difficult.

In addition, some incorrect handling methods in panic not only fail to relieve pain, but also cause people to quickly develop negative emotions such as impatience and fear.

The most common sites for foreign bodies to penetrate are the bilateral tonsillar fossa, the base of the tongue, and the hypopharynx. If a fish bone gets stuck in the throat, you will feel a tingling sensation or a noticeable foreign body sensation. If the fish bone irritates the pharyngeal mucosa, it will cause congestion and edema, leading to severe coughing, or cause reflex laryngeal spasm and foreign body obstruction, leading to difficulty breathing, and may be accompanied by varying degrees of wheezing, hoarseness, sore throat and other symptoms.

If the foreign body is large and embedded in the glottis, it may cause suffocation and death in severe cases.

Therefore, when a fish bone or foreign object is stuck in the throat, you should strictly fast before the foreign object (such as a fish bone) is removed. You should not use incorrect methods such as drinking vinegar to deal with it. Try to reduce swallowing movements to prevent the foreign object from penetrating deep tissues.

Through the above correct methods and misunderstandings, I believe everyone knows how to deal with it. The editor summarizes that if it is a small burr, you can remain calm and do not swallow it hard. It can usually be expelled in about three days. If the fish bone is large and cannot be removed by yourself, go to the hospital as soon as possible to avoid accidents.