How to Remove a Foreign Body From the Nose

So you've got something up your nose (or maybe your child does). This can be a particularly painful and frightening experience, and extraction has already proven fairly difficult, or else you wouldn't be here. If you are the one with something up your nose and you're alone, go to the emergency room. Without help, chances are you'll only shove the object further back, and that's when things get dangerous. Doctors have a variety of tools made just for this sort of thing, and they can remove it quickly and without much chance of the object winding up in your lungs.

Things You'll Need

• Flashlight
• Tweezers
• Hooked probe

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Instructions

• 1

  A small flashlight will do.

  Determine what is up there, how big it is, and how deep it is. Using your flashlight, take a look inside the affected nostril, but don't start poking around. Look for any bleeding and try to figure out why it is stuck. Attempting to dislodge the object without having sound knowledge of what you're up against can be disastrous, so take your time.

• 2

  Tweezers may free the object.

  Attempt to pull it out. For objects that are clearly visible and are not rounded, you can try to pull them out using tweezers -- if the tweezers are large enough -- or a hooked probe of some sort. Don't just do it blindly: Use the flashlight and your eyes to watch what is going on and make adjustments as needed. If bleeding occurs, or if the object won't budge or is pushed further back in the attempt, go to the ER.

• 3

  Blow it out. You've probably already tried this, but if the object is difficult to see or spherical -- which will make it difficult to grasp -- close the unaffected nostril, then tell your child to blow hard. This may dislodge the object completely, or may do just enough that you can attempt to pull it out as described in Step 2.

• 4

  Go to the hospital.

  Seek help. If neither of these methods work: Doctors have tools that can achieve similar effect with much greater precision or power. Right now, someone just has something up their nose, but if it gets into their lung, it could cause an infection, asthma, bronchiectasis or even death by drowning. Don't risk it.