This is what happens to your body if you swallow a toothpick

The sharpened wood splinters that most of us don't really think about.

That's true.

I don't think about them.

Where's this going? You've likely seen one between the teeth of countless Tufts in movies.

Aside from keeping a nice club sandwich held together or cleaning food bits stuck between teeth, historically, chewing on a toothpick has been viewed as a sign of contentment and insouciance, a fancy word which here means a casual lack of concern.

But maybe there's a different image toothpicks should bring to mind when we see them.

Something like... poisoning your blood? A 33-year-old man got up for a late night snack, only to suffer from abdominal pain for the next two months.

X-ray scans showed nothing that could be causing the issue, but an ultrasound scan showed a small, linear shadow, a little line near the left liver lobe.

Brought in for an exploratory surgery, doctors found something in the man's body that really shouldn't have been there.

Who's that Pokemon?

A small, spiky, wooden, almost pick-like...

It's a toothpick! God, it's obvious!

Just get to it!

Ah, yes.

It was a toothpick that had managed to pierce through the man's intestinal lining, surrounded by inflammation.

After removal, the patient made an unremarkable recovery, and when asked about the toothpick, he stated that he probably ingested it following a night of drinking.

A middle-aged woman was admitted to her local hospital with tenderness in the abdomen over her stomach.

No problem was found until she was transferred to a hospital where blood work was done.

Finding the results unusual, the staff took a CT scan of the woman's abdomen and found a small, linear shadow, one with surrounding inflammation.

Another toothpick? Another toothpick.

It had punctured the woman's innards after being swallowed and had gotten stuck.

After removal, the woman had an uneventful recovery.

But when it comes to swallowing a toothpick, just having it get stuck inside you is probably one of the better outcomes possible.

In 2012, the British Medical Journal reported on a 45-year-old woman whose inadvertent consumption of a toothpick had much worse effects on her than mere abdominal pain.

Admitted to the hospital with symptoms including generalized gut pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, and low blood pressure.

The sharpened wood splinters that most of us don't really think about.

That's true.

I don't think about them.

Where's this going? You've likely seen one between the teeth of countless Tufts in movies.

Aside from keeping a nice club sandwich held together or cleaning food bits stuck between teeth, historically, chewing on a toothpick has been viewed as a sign of contentment and insouciance, a fancy word which here means a casual lack of concern.

But maybe there's a different image toothpicks should bring to mind when we see them.

Something like... poisoning your blood? A 33-year-old man got up for a late night snack, only to suffer from abdominal pain for the next two months.

X-ray scans showed nothing that could be causing the issue, but an ultrasound scan showed a small, linear shadow, a little line near the left liver lobe.

Brought in for an exploratory surgery, doctors found something in the man's body that really shouldn't have been there.

Who's that Pokemon?

A small, spiky, wooden, almost pick-like...

It's a toothpick! God, it's obvious!

Just get to it!

Ah, yes.

It was a toothpick that had managed to pierce through the man's intestinal lining, surrounded by inflammation.

After removal, the patient made an unremarkable recovery, and when asked about the toothpick, he stated that he probably ingested it following a night of drinking.

A middle-aged woman was admitted to her local hospital with tenderness in the abdomen over her stomach.

No problem was found until she was transferred to a hospital where blood work was done.

Finding the results unusual, the staff took a CT scan of the woman's abdomen and found a small, linear shadow, one with surrounding inflammation.

Another toothpick? Another toothpick.

It had punctured the woman's innards after being swallowed and had gotten stuck.

After removal, the woman had an uneventful recovery.

But when it comes to swallowing a toothpick, just having it get stuck inside you is probably one of the better outcomes possible.

In 2012, the British Medical Journal reported on a 45-year-old woman whose inadvertent consumption of a toothpick had much worse effects on her than mere abdominal pain.

Admitted to the hospital with symptoms including generalized gut pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, and low blood pressure.