Trying to figure out what this kid's toy from the dentist is. I tried to look for it online and the only thing that looked similar was a fidget toy/spring like this:
Except this is just a solid piece of plastic. I thought maybe it just needed to be pulled apart, but it broke in half when I tried.
Maybe it's a spring that somehow fused together? No idea what else it could possibly be.
Plastic degradation, probably cleaned with a solvent like alcohol. It has now essentially fused and become brittle. Only good for eventual microplastics or incineration now.
I have used alcohol on many of plastics and have never seen plastic fused as a result.
Should consider yourself lucky. Brittle, sticky, fusing, cracking failures are very normal with solvent attack on various plastics