Sing to me the song of tonsil stones

[Antisocial_Worker]

I've already asked my doctor about them, and he wasn't terribly concerned, telling me that you can get tonsil stones from stress, sleeplessness, an infection, or just for fun and no reason at all.

It could be stress. It could be sleeplessness. I show no other signs of infection at all, so I doubt it's that, or it could just be for funsies. God only knows. What I know is that they're getting annoying. I'd felt something scraping against the back of my tongue for a couple of weeks, and finally decided to shine a light in my throat to take a look, whereupon I saw a big white glob protruding from the left one. That was a bit alarming, as it brought back some memories from the time about 15 years ago when I had mono. The mono caused my tonsils to swell enormously, and then there were all these awful sores that would erupt, empty out, and leave giant craters behind.

Over time it all went away, but the tonsils never shrank all that much ("Big, poofy tonsils," noted my doctor once when looking at them), and the craters only shrank. For years all was calm.

Until now. It's been a constant phenomenon for the past couple of weeks. I'll feel something touching the back of my tongue, look, press on the tonsil with an attachment to my partner's WaterPik -- I just use the attachment, which is very handy for digging the damn things out, and leave the actual WaterPik to him -- and watch as a glob pops out. They smell like sick breath and are composed of a gritty paste.

Is this something I'm going to have to just deal with from now on? Why now after all this time? They're disgusting and annoying, and it's kind of freaking me out how I can see that there must be tunnels through my tonsils where these blasted things are forming.

Do any of you have experience with this? What do you do? Do they ever go away?

[LillFilly]

I have my tonsils. I've had tonsil stones all my life. They're funny things, made of food and minerals and I also think post nasal drip. Since I've been using a neti pot to flush my sinus every so often, I haven't gotten as many. It seems too that if you check periodically and flick them out as soon as you see them, they don't cause as many problems. When I'm trying to get them loose I'll gargle and sort of... I don't know how to describe it...cough or clear my throat on just that side; sounds like I'm hacking up a hairball, but maybe the vibrations loosen it enough that I can flick it out. If the water pick attachement works for you, great. I've used a single prong I left on a plastic fork and carefully tickled the stone out of its nest; you want to be careful not to use something too sharp or gag yourself, but you get the knack of it. I don't know if diet affects the formation of the things, and some people probably have deeper crevices around their tonsils than others. I get them more on the right side, which is also my dominant chewing side. I HAVE found that by consistently getting rid of the stones I have fewer cases or sore throats; only 1 in maybe 4-years.

And yeah, they smell terrible. That's normal. I've noticed my morning breath is much better now that I'm keeping them under control!

If you want to look for new formations and get them before they get too big, shine a flashlight in there; they show up really well. And try to relax the back of your throat; the crevases around the tonsils open up a little more and you can see in.

[Kheldarson]

Is this something I'm going to have to just deal with from now on? Why now after all this time? They're disgusting and annoying, and it's kind of freaking me out how I can see that there must be tunnels through my tonsils where these blasted things are forming.

Do any of you have experience with this? What do you do? Do they ever go away?

I get them off and on. Sometimes they develop constantly. Sometimes I'll get one and that's all. And oft times there's a long span between issues.

I use a toothbrush and salt water gargle to get them out. Or my tongue. It's annoying but they eventually work themselves free.

[AnaKhouri]

Someone else just recently posted about this. I never had a tonsil stone in my life until about 4 years ago, and they became more and more frequent until for a period of about a year I had one constantly, always on the left side. One day it stopped and I've not had one for around a year. So they can come and go apparently! My ENT told me they are bits of food that get caught in your tonsil wrinkles and calcify, hence the smell- rotting food.

I sympathize, it really sucks! And my gag reflex is so sensitive I was never able to knock them out with a toothbrush/Q-tip like some people do. I hope you're able to find some relief from them.

[crazylegs]

I had them terribly until I changed my toothpaste, after then no issues at all.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Someone else just recently posted about this.

Yeah, I really should have checked. Didn't even think to do so. It's been nice to read about everyone's experiences though... I don't feel like quite such a freak anymore.

[MaggieTheCat]

I started getting them maybe 6-7 years ago? At first they were pretty bad but I don't get them nearly as often anymore. Not sure why. I am on a no-dairy diet now so maybe that has something to do with it? I have no idea, though. As others have said they do seem to come and go. I use a q-tip to push on the bottom of my tonsil and that usually pushes them out (looks sorta like cottage cheese oozing out of the crevices of the tonsils...gross, I know, sorry for the visual) when they do form now.

[Tama]

Given milk's tendency to coat things...it doesn't surprise me in the least that they would cause some sort of issue like this.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I believe the only way to permanently stop tonsil stones from forming is to have your tonsils removed entirely. No crevices, no tonsil stones. Otherwise you'll just have to come to terms with the fact that they may form at anytime really.

I actually watched a video where they seared off the tonsil... it was actually pretty cool to watch. Though, at the very beginning, the surgeon lifted up the tonsil to show a MASSIVE nest of tonsil stones. That was gross...

[FenigDurak]

I never got stones until I had a peritonsular abcess. Huge tonsils meant huge stones. After a month of antibiotics to bring the infection down enough to remove the tonsils, I stopped getting stones. That was in '05.
Last year all of a sudden I started getting little ones again. In the same place every few months. I used a popsicle stick to prod them out. It was caused by tonsular tissue regrowing. Oh yes, they can do that if the surgeon missed a bit.
It seems the tissue has grown enough now to seal up the little pocket the stones were forming in because I haven't had any in 6 months.