THE FACTS

One problem with old wives’ tales and medical myths is that they can sometimes lead well-meaning people to do ill-advised things. Armed with the adage that people having seizures can swallow their tongue, Good Samaritans will sometimes try to force an object into the victim’s mouth to keep that from happening.

A persistent belief, experts say, but a wrong and potentially injurious one.

Swallowing the tongue is virtually impossible. In the human mouth, a small piece of tissue called the frenulum linguae, which sits behind the teeth and under the tongue, keeps the tongue in place, even during a seizure.

Image Credit... Leif Parsons

Ryan Brett, the director of education for the Epilepsy Institute in New York, said people who witness a seizure often reach for a wallet, a spoon, or a dirty object to stick in the person’s mouth, much to the chagrin of epilepsy patients. He said he frequently conducted first-aid workshops in which he had to disabuse people of the myth.