Comments on: Boogers

Question: Boogers

brownpau — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 15:48:10 -0800

The snot question got me wondering: Is there a scientific name for boogers? Surely doctors and biologists don't go around talking about coagulated mucosal deposits as "boogers," do they?

By: squeak

squeak — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:19:59 -0800

I think the word "mucus" would fit.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:31:07 -0800

No, mucus is defined in Webster's Eleventh as "a viscid slippery solution". There must be another word.

By: spilon

spilon — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:39:52 -0800

Nose candy?

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:44:37 -0800

Well, we were taught that the components of nasal secretions were mostly water, glycosaminoglycans, and proteoglycans.

When the secretions are particularly dried out so they reach a stony consistency, we call 'em 'inspissated'.

I know that snot what you're looking for.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:46:02 -0800

doesn't milkrate's post in that thread pretty well answer this: airway mucus secretions. The fact that the dictionary calls mucous something different has no bearing on what the medical name is.There appears to be no medical subject heading [MeSH] except Bronchi/secretion and Mucus/secretion.

Tracheobronchial secretions are a complex mixture of secretory fluids derived from sources within the lung. Important constituents include the mucous glycoproteins, other secretory proteins, serum proteins, lipids, salts; water makes up 95% of mucus by weight. These secretions form two phases at the epithelial surface: a mucous gel and an aqueous layer (periciliary fluid). Polymerization and aggregation of mucous glycoproteins create the gel matrix. Other macromolecules such as lysozyme, albumin, and immunoglobulin A also may participate in the process of gelation.

By: squeak

squeak — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 16:57:06 -0800

I checked my, "definitions - nurse's reference library" and found this:

mucosa pl. mucosae Mucous membrane. --mucosal, adj.

mucus The viscous, slippery secretions of the mucous membranes and glands containing mucin, white blood cells, water, inorganic salts and exfoliated cells. -- mucoid, adj. mucous, adj.

-mucous A combining form meaning 'containing or composed of mucus': fibromucous

on preview: I thought so too jessamyn.

By: kindall

kindall — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:04:49 -0800

mucus is defined in Webster's Eleventh as "a viscid slippery solution". There must be another word.

Well, they're dried mucus. Dessicated, if you want to get fancy about it.

By: contessa

contessa — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:14:49 -0800

I've heard doctors call the solid ones "crusts" but I'd be suprised if that were the scientific word for them.

By: nj_subgenius

nj_subgenius — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:22:54 -0800

...Nose goblins, per Stimpy...

By: interrobang

interrobang — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:43:50 -0800

Come to think of it, it's probably something really simple, like "dry mucosa".

By: kimota

kimota — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:58:35 -0800

I asked the doctor who did my sinus surgery what he called them, and he laughed (peculiarly, not like he gets that question all the time, but as though it was one of the few times he'd ever heard it), and suggested (rather than give a definitive answer) "crusting."

By: tss

tss — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:16:31 -0800

I've been wondering about this myself. Since there doesn't seem to be an actual term, I propose "rhinolith". (Cf. tonsilolith, another AskMe favorite...)

...

Drat! That's already taken...

By: Plutor

Plutor — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 05:54:31 -0800

My wife is a medical student, and in her first year, she once came home and triumphantly informed me that "boogers" was a perfectly acceptible medical term.

The term for buttcrack is "natal cleft", though.

By: plinth

plinth — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 06:24:48 -0800

My daughter's pediatrician used the phrase "bilateral rhinorhea" made me bust out laughing as a very obfuscated way to say "two rivers of snot".