A widespread idea, among those for whom epilepsy is something distant and unknown, is that a person suffering a seizure can choke with his tongue. And they mistakenly believe that in the face of a seizure they should try to open their mouth and introduce some object, and this, far from helping, can be dangerous (for the one who thinks it helps and for the one who is suffering the seizure).

Epilepsy: seizures

The truth is that most of the seizures epileptic seizures do not cause accidents (including the most intense ones: generalized tonic-clonic seizures) if injuries to the tongue, cheeks or lips, or trauma caused by falling while hitting.

The false belief that during a seizure the patient can choke on his own tongue, and trying to open his mouth, causes some patients with epilepsy to suffer lacerations of the lips, gums and even broken teeth.

Currently the recommendation is that you should never attempt to open the mouth of a person who is suffering a crisis, it is very unlikely that we will be able to stop them from biting their mouth, and very likely that we will cause them greater harm.

During a crisis, the lack of breathing is due to the disordered contraction of the respiratory musculature, and not because the tongue prevents the passage of air. Thus the opening of the mouth does not bring any benefit.

We leave you a link to an old post in in which we give the basic recommendations on how to act in case of an epileptic seizure :

Epilepsy Team that is part of the Epilepsy Program of the Neurology Service of the Ruber Internacional Hospital.