Almost 40 toothpicks found in patient’s nose

The harmful habit of self-insertion also triggered a fruit allergy

A woman’s chronic nasal congestion turned out to be related to her penchant for nose picking — but not the kind you might think.

The 41-year-old presented to a hospital in South Korea with a month-long history of worsening nasal stuffiness, hyposmia and hypogeusia.

A nasal endoscopy revealed a narrowed natural ostium of the right maxillary sinus with a polyp-shaped mass in the left. The patient was also confirmed to have anosmia.

To dig a little deeper, doctors ordered a paranasal sinus CT, which showed multiple straight hairlines running from the base of the maxillary sinus all the way to the roof of the ethmoid sinus in both nasal cavities.