[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Tonsil stones anyone? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 11/4/2011 10:27:54 AM EDT
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I've been struggling with tonsil stones all my life, likely due to a doctor telling my mom that tonsil removal is a way of the past when I was young. If you aren't aware, they are disgusting white lumps of who knows what that get stuck in the caverns in your tonsils, and make your breath smell like hot garbage. I end up having to pick them out every couple of days with a qtip, but it's impossible to get them all. Does anyone afflicted with this disgusting issue know how to get rid of them without having brutal surgery that will knock you on your ass for a week or so? I can't take the time off work or school. I've also heard it sucks to get tonsils removed when you're older, and after seeing that video of some hospital in bumfuck east europe depicting a kid getting his tonsils removed without anaesthesia, I don't think I want to go down that road. |
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Quoted: Alcohol free mouthwash can help. Kinda. I still get 'em. My wife finds it horrifying. I've been switching up brands of mouthwash lately to see if any work better than the other. I'll have to look into alcohol free next time I'm out. edit- I make sure to gargle as long as I can, in hopes that the mouthwash makes its way into the holes. It slows the growth, but doesn't stop them at all.
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Quoted: how do you know you have'em? the stones I mean not tonsils Look for white spots on your tonsils. Then push next to them; if they pop out, then you got 'em. They are sometimes caused by strep throat. I used to have them but then after popping a bunch out 25 or so years ago they haven't come back. |
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Quoted: how do you know you have'em? the stones I mean not tonsils Use a flashlight to look in your mouth in the mirror. If you see white things in the back sides of your mouth, you havem. Take a look at youtube if you dare. And yes, sometimes they dislodge when you cough or sometimes even breath heavily.
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Nasty things, I get them every so often, end up just popping out randomly.
The de-labyrinthing procedure (or whatever it's called) isn't nearly as bad as tonsil removal, they just split the tonsil open with a cauterizing needle so that there are no longer pockets for junk to get trapped in. |
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Doesn't seem to be a known cause.
Do you get enough to drink, OP? Low hydration causes all sorts of weird shit. And maybe you're getting too much (or even too little) milk if these are calcium deposits. What do you usually drink in a day, and how much? And how about nutrition/vitamins? Do you mainly eat a certain type of food? Hard foods, soft foods, meat, leafy greens, what? And are you getting all the vitamins and minerals you need? |
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I used to get them. I would use the back of an old tooth brush to push them out. There are two ways of doing this. Push it directly into the tonsil and force them out. Or put the tooth brush on the outside of your throat/under your jaw and push it up really hard towards the tonsil and force them out that way.
I got so fucking sick of it myself that I had my tonsils removed. I had it done last year (was 21 at the time). It didn't hurt that bad. It hurt for about 3 weeks and I spent the first week laying in bed on pain meds. The second week I was working and on pain meds. The third week I was out of pain meds just dealing with the pain. Which was comparable to a minor sore throat. To be honest the worst part of the whole process was going through withdraws when the pain meds ran out. The first couple days I was strung out and couldn't sleep |
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Quoted:
Doesn't seem to be a known cause. Do you get enough to drink, OP? Low hydration causes all sorts of weird shit. And maybe you're getting too much (or even too little) milk if these are calcium deposits. What do you usually drink in a day, and how much? And how about nutrition/vitamins? Do you mainly eat a certain type of food? Hard foods, soft foods, meat, leafy greens, what? And are you getting all the vitamins and minerals you need? My hypothesis was that they were caused by previous damage to the tonsil. Like throat infections. The infections put holes in the tonsil and then they get bigger to the point where food particles can collect in them and it just snow balls from there. I never got them when I was younger (12-18) but I had alot of throat infections and problems with my tonsils. I started getting the tonsil stones after my tonsils got pitted from infections at around 19-21 yrs old. |
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I gargled salt water every morning for many years. It works and is easily available. Just mix some salt and water in a plastic bottle and keep it in the bathroom.
The problem seems to of went away on its own when I reached my thirties. I rarely have them anymore. |
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Quoted: When I was young, around 10. I would wake up sometimes with little white rock type things in my mouth. I would bite them and they would taste like what I imagine to be sweaty baboon asshole. Were these tonsil stones?  Yeah, that was a tonsil stone. I dunno what smells worse, a tonsil stone or a fast food dumpster on a hot summer day. Quoted: My hypothesis was that they were caused by previous damage to the tonsil. Like throat infections. The infections put holes in the tonsil and then they get bigger to the point where food particles can collect in them and it just snow balls from there. I never got them when I was younger (12-18) but I had alot of throat infections and problems with my tonsils. I started getting the tonsil stones after my tonsils got pitted from infections at around 19-21 yrs old. A quick check on wikipedia shows that tonsils have a bunch of little folds where food and other bacteria can accumulate, which causes tonsil stones. If those folds get enlarged somehow, it would probably make them more susceptible to creating tonsil stones. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
When I was young, around 10. I would wake up sometimes with little white rock type things in my mouth. I would bite them and they would taste like what I imagine to be sweaty baboon asshole. Were these tonsil stones?
Yeah, that was a tonsil stone. I dunno what smells worse, a tonsil stone or a fast food dumpster on a hot summer day. Quoted:
My hypothesis was that they were caused by previous damage to the tonsil. Like throat infections. The infections put holes in the tonsil and then they get bigger to the point where food particles can collect in them and it just snow balls from there. I never got them when I was younger (12-18) but I had alot of throat infections and problems with my tonsils. I started getting the tonsil stones after my tonsils got pitted from infections at around 19-21 yrs old. A quick check on wikipedia shows that tonsils have a bunch of little folds where food and other bacteria can accumulate, which causes tonsil stones. If those folds get enlarged somehow, it would probably make them more susceptible to creating tonsil stones. Ic. Well im glad I got rid of mine. |
I had LARGE and very deep/cryptic tonsils. I am so fucking glad I had those things removed. I had them removed when I was 23-24 IIRC and yeah the recovery really really sucked (was off work for 2 weeks but really only a week and a half was bad), but it was worth it to not have to put up with swollen tonsils and those disgusting tonsiloliths. There are some slightly less "barbaric" procedures that can be done by lasing the tonsils or something. If you can get them removed, I highly recommend it.  The problem is finding a doc that will do it. Mine did it because my tonsils were nearly teh size of golf balls at the time and were causing sleep apnea like problems for me.
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If I found that growing in my mouth...
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Quoted:
I had no idea such a thing even existed. Holy shit. A thread like this last year brought it to my attention. My whole life I always thought it was pieces of food coming up that were stuck. After that thread I pulled one out, and now I probably need to see a psychiatrist over my obsessive attempts to prevent and remove them. If you crush one in your fingers and smell it, you will wish you were sniffing a skunks dead asshole instead. |