Symptoms

The type of foreign body and its location in a person’s body determines the symptoms experienced by a person. However, some of the most common symptoms include:

• Mild to Severe pain and discomfort
• Nasal drainage where the object was inserted into the nose
• Coughing, wheezing, and choking where the object got stuck in the airway
• Difficulties in breathing

Causes

A recent survey of American emergency rooms showed that more than 500,000 ER visits were due to a foreign body-related incident. (Source: CDC). From a child with a silver dollar stuck in the throat to an adult with a bug in their ear, most emergency workers have seen it all.

Treatments

Foreign bodies can be found on one’s skin, ears, nose, mouth, stomach among other body parts. The removal of these foreign objects often requires a symptom evaluation or body examination to identify the types of foreign body and where it is located. Removing foreign objects from the body can be a simple or complicated process depending on the type of object and how deeply lodged it is. Doctors do not necessarily need to conduct surgery to remove a foreign body because they can pull or dig them out using suction machines, tweezers, or magnets.