# Flossing your innards with twine **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706 "2017-07-07T16:58:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/1 "2017-07-07T16:58:36Z")
Is it possible to swallow a spool of string such that it comes out the other end while still accessible from your mouth? If so could you successfully do a whole body cavity floss? Yes, it’s been a slow work week. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/2 "2017-07-07T17:06:44Z")
Is there any topic that _hasn’t_ [been](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/44/can-yogas-swallow-a-cloth-and-have-it-come-out-the-urk-other-end) [doped](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=114333)? ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/3 "2017-07-07T17:12:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Is there any topic that _hasn’t_ [been](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/44/can-yogas-swallow-a-cloth-and-have-it-come-out-the-urk-other-end) [doped](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=114333)? A lot of GQ can be answered just the way you did. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/4 "2017-07-07T17:55:04Z")
Didn’t Robert Crumb’s brother do that, as documented in **Crumb** , the Terry Zwigoff flick? ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/5 "2017-07-07T17:58:13Z")
> [@steatopygia](#): > > A lot of GQ can be answered just the way you did. That would take all the mystery out of life… ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/6 "2017-07-07T19:23:29Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Is there any topic that _hasn’t_ [been](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/44/can-yogas-swallow-a-cloth-and-have-it-come-out-the-urk-other-end) [doped](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=114333)? Yes, but I suspect that you remembered reading the Cecil report before and had an easier time searching for it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/7 "2017-07-07T19:39:32Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Yes, but I suspect that you remembered reading the Cecil report before and had an easier time searching for it. Nope. 5th hit in [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=string+from+mouth+to+butt&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8) google search. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/8 "2017-07-07T19:39:42Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Is it possible to swallow a spool of string such that it comes out the other end while still accessible from your mouth? If so could you successfully do a whole body cavity floss? > > Yes, it’s been a slow work week. 😃 About ten or fifteen years ago I saw a video on a shock site in which a guy appeared to have done this with dental floss. Not such that he could saw it back and forth in a flossing motion, but I doubt such motion would even be possible without causing severe internal injuries. Knowing that it has happened with pets before, I can’t think of a reason humans couldn’t do it, and I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video I saw - but it seems quite dangerous, even without trying to deliberately saw the floss back and forth. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/9 "2017-07-08T11:56:07Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Didn’t Robert Crumb’s brother do that, as documented in **Crumb** , the Terry Zwigoff flick? Yup. But I’m not sure how much we can count on what we saw. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/10 "2017-07-08T18:36:07Z")
[Cantor tubes](http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cantor+tube) are used for this purpose. The mercury bag eventually passes out the anus, and is clipped off, and the tube pulled back out through the mouth. Or down out through the anus, depending on the clinical situation. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flossing-your-innards-with-twine/790706/11 "2017-07-08T19:19:33Z")
Gilda Radner had this treatment done for a bowel blockage. She wrote in her memoir “It’s Always Something” that nothing in her cancer treatment (chemotherapy and radiation) hurt more than having that tube pulled out of her nose.