I’ve heard that one can commit suicide by biting off one’s tounge and shallowing it. Is it possible? How would death occur, suffocation? Wouldn’t it be fairly difficult to do?
Unless your on death row,and on a suicide watch,would,nt even cross my mind,if that was absolutely my only choice,I’ll take the shot or gas,thanks! :rolleyes:
I don’t think it’s possible to intentionally bite off a chunk of tongue large enough to get trapped in your epiglottis. Try sticking your tongue out as far as it will go and bite down. I did and couldn’t even bite hard enough to cause pain (yes, I tried!) It seems like the biting muscles don’t work very well with a fully extended tongue.
I did see one of those “Life in the Trauma Ward!” shows where a kid did manage to bite off most of his tongue in a car accident. They called it a “freak” accident so it probably doesn’t happen very often. The chunk of tongue was plenty large enough to choke on, if he’d swallowed it – instead, they sewed it back on. 
You could probably hack off a good chunk if you smuggled a shank into the cell, but in that case, you’d be better off hackin’ away at the ol’ carotid instead.
I thought it was a drowning method - bite off enough tongue while lying on your back that one could drown in one’s own blood. Ick.
Lying jerk! :mad:
(it really hurts though!)
My friend’s little brother managed to bite off most of his tongue when he was about 7 or 8 (actually, IIRC, it was one of those “hanging by a thread” injuries. shudder). The tongue is actually pretty long – so when I say “most of his tongue” it would be “whatever fits in front of your teeth” when your tongue is fully extended.
He used to absent mindedly stick his tongue out all the time and use his tongue to push out his bottom lip (made him look like a monkey). One day he dropped something in the bathroom (soap or toothbrush – I don’t remember) and when he stood up he bashed his head on the underside of the sink while his tongue was in its fully extended, bottom-lip-pushing position.
It was sewn back on and he missed a few days of school, was on a liquid diet, and couldn’t talk properly for a while due to swelling. It healed relatively quickly, and nowadays you can barely see a scar if he shows it to you.
My friend said there was a stunning amount of blood and a very large portion of his tongue was nearly severed – certainly enough to choke on, had it come fully off. shudder Martin (the tongue-chomper himself) has said it was excruciating! I can’t imagine anyone wanting to commit suicide like that. Ow, ow, ow!
It really is amazing how fast tongues heal. Some years back, I managed to slice mine open while licking peanut butter off of a knife :smack: . It stopped bleeding quite quickly (otherwise I woulda gone somewhere to see about having it sewn up) and felt normal within a few days.
Wouldn’t suicide by swallowing the tongue would involve swallowing it without biting through it, so it would be pointing backwards down the throat, obstructing the airway?
(ugh!) Maybe you could do it if you were being tortured.
That would make more sense to me. If you could somehow consciously get your tongue into a position where it blocked your airway and not reflexively correct the problem.
What exactly is “swallowing your tongue” anyway? Isn’t it that everything goes so slack that your tongue way at the back slides into a bad position and blocks your airway? (I don’t think it’s like pointing it backwards and swallowing it tip first.)
One of the first acts you perform when giving CPR to an unconscious, supine person, is to tilt the head back so that the tongue comes away from the airway. If the head is in a straight line with the spine, the tongue has a tenancy to block the airway, and CPR would be futile.