posted 05-01-2003 03:12 PM            

Your tonsils are there because they fight off infection. Most often they're taken out due to numerous throat infections that can't be controlled with medications.

The stones are not caused by food. They're much like plaque on teeth actually. They can build up very fast, just like if you didn't brush your teeth for a few days.

posted 06-01-2003 07:32 PM            

Could you explain "exactly" the process you use with the waterpic. Also, when your ENT said to keep them clean....what was his suggestion? I do the squeezing method which I've "perfected"...but I'm interested in your method.

posted 06-03-2003 10:06 PM            

I fill the reservior cup of the water pic with warmish water, and add about 1/4 of the cup with either cepacol or listerine. I have mastered getting the tip of the water pik, (without gagging) at the lowest setting, way back into the opening of my tonsils and irrigate the hole. I also pull the area open with the tip of the water pik to make sure all the area gets flushed. It takes practice, but believe me, it is worth it not to have the bad breath, and the ill feeling of swollen glands and ear pain. I have been doing this for a good 3 years now. It has become part of my morning routine, brush the teeth, and water pik the tonsils LOL. I think the ENT meant keep the area clean, just by what I am doing. He is the one that suggested this. Makes my Dentist happy also, cause I also do in between my teeth every morning. It works wonders for me, and being in my mid 40's, my ENT was really serious about having the tonsils out would have a very bad effect on me. He basically refused to do it. I used to use a Q tip, and that was painful and made my tonsils bleed. This actually feels good, maybe cause I know my breath doesn't have that awful stench. No more breath mints constantly.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

posted 06-13-2003 03:24 AM            

My tonsils were swollen up so huge that they were actually touching each other in the back of my throat. I had lost tons of weight due to the difficulty in just swallowing food. I Constantly had bad breath (horrible in the mornings!), and had difficulty breathing when laying down and trying to sleep at night.

I will not lie, the surgery was EXTREMELY painful. I couldn't talk above a whisper for a week, I couldn't eat or drink barely anything (lost even more weight). The pain meds made me throw up all night the first night, and when you get your tonsils out, the Last thing you want to be doing is throwing up! It was so painful that I went off the pain meds, and then the REAL pain from the surgery set in. Ouch!!

posted 06-13-2003 03:25 AM            

My tonsils were swollen up so huge that they were actually touching each other in the back of my throat. I had lost tons of weight due to the difficulty in just swallowing food. I Constantly had bad breath (horrible in the mornings!), and had difficulty breathing when laying down and trying to sleep at night.

I will not lie, the surgery was EXTREMELY painful. I couldn't talk above a whisper for a week, I couldn't eat or drink barely anything (lost even more weight). The pain meds made me throw up all night the first night, and when you get your tonsils out, the Last thing you want to be doing is throwing up! It was so painful that I went off the pain meds, and then the REAL pain from the surgery set in. Ouch!!

posted 06-14-2003 01:56 AM            

I suggest that you try some of the steps others have mentioned on this board and then discuss your problem with your mom.

Start off by telling her how long you've experienced the problems, how having this problem makes you feel, what you've done to fix the problem and how you've taken the time to research the problem.

Hopefully she understands your concern and gets you in to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (ENT).
As for myself, I too have this problem. I went to see an ENT about two years ago and he numbed my nose and throat by placing an instrument in my nose that squirted out a highly pressurized local anesthetic (it didn't really hurt, but it felt very weird). Then he used a little scope/camera to see what he could find. The doctor said he couldn't find anything. I knew they were there. But, he basically told me I didn’t have a problem.

It took a lot of guts to go see that doctor and when I found out there was nothing he could do I was upset and frustrated because I was able to recognize that I had a problem.

Anyhow, I still have the problem. I do not want my tonsils removed...although that has been suggested; I haven't taken it into consideration. OUCH!
Like others, I am able to cough them up. One of my tricks is to use a little water tube that sprays water out at a direct/sharp angle (I got it when I had my wisdom teeth removed- ask your dentist for one). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I notice that I have more problems with the tonsiloliths when I eat certain foods, especially bread and ground pepper or other coarse spices. I notice that when I am able to remove a tonsilolith and I've recently eaten something with ground pepper, the middle of the tonsilolith will be solid and look like ground pepper (or whatever spice).

I agree with other people that this problem is probably related to post nasal drip. I have tried many products to rid myself of that problem. I haven't had any luck. Ever since I began to experience postnasal drip I've had tonsiloliths.

I hope that they go away.

I found a website that contains a product to help with tonsiloliths. Since I cannot post the product name or website, I suggest that you go to yahoo.com and look up information on it.

I haven't tried the products, but am thinking of trying the nasal drops (because they are supposed to target tonsiloliths).

Good luck. Please don't feel embarrassed to tell your mother about medical problems- compared to other problems you may come into contact with in the future-THIS is MINOR!

GOOD LUCK!

posted 06-14-2003 02:34 AM            

I too saw two different doctors who told me I didn't have a problem with my tonsils (and they were so large they were touching each other in the back of my throat!).

I KNEW that I had a problem and tonsils that big couldn't be just nothing. I went and saw a third doctor who, when I opened my mouth, said "Holy S---!" She then immediately apologized for her comment, explaining that doctors are not supposed to have that type of reaction in front of patients! I told her I was glad to hear that somebody finally agreed that I had a problem!

posted 06-14-2003 12:56 PM            

At this point, I am still at a standstill. I am thinking of trying the threabreath products and see where it takes me.

I hate having this problem. I have had the same significant other for about 5 years now and about 1-2 years into our relationship I started to have this problem. It has been extremely embarassing and I feel awful. It's hard for me to even bring myself to kiss! *SIGH*. Threabreath here I come.

posted 06-14-2003 09:32 PM            

Are your tonsils enlarged at all? Or do you only have problems with the tonsiloliths and bad breath?

The same thing happened to me with my ex-boyfriend. He was the one that told me I had bad breath and that was why he didn't want to kiss me anymore! I was so humiliated.

posted 06-28-2003 10:46 PM            

My sister and I have had these nasty-smelling little buggers for years and years (I'm 46, she's 43) and when they first started we both thought, as some of you did, we were coughing them up from somewhere deeper inside... maybe from down in our throat. Neither one of us could imagine what they could be but since we both had them, we figured it couldn't be all that serious.

A few years ago, however, I had a VERY sore throat... it had been sore for about 2 days so I took a look to see what was going on and, as the one woman's doctor put it, "Holy S***!!!"... what was that THING sticking out of my left tonsil? It was my first glimpse at a tonsil stone/tonsolith/whatever. Over the course of the next two days it got bigger and bigger. I let my sis take a look at it and her response was to jump back (literally!) and ask "what the H*** is THAT?". LOL... my thought exactly. Being my usual optimistic self, I immediately made an appointment for the next day with my regular MD so he could tell me I had throat cancer. Wouldn't you know it... during the night part of it came out (I have NO idea what happened to it... swallowed, perhaps... ick!). No biggie, I thought... there's still enough left poking out of my tonsil to show my doctor I have cancer (yep, I'm an optomist, alright!). During the morning before my appointment, a coughing fit comes over me... wham, bam, what's left of the stone flies out of my tonsil and into my hand (can we say "ugh"?). I run to the bathroom and take a look... nothing left but a big GAPING hole in my tonsil. Ok, fine... still good evidence that I had a tumor in my tonsil, right? Wrong! By the time I got to the doctor's office later that day, the hole had nearly closed up. "It must have been impacted food", he says, after giving me that "she's clearly out of her mind" look. I just looked back at him and said nothing. Maybe it wasn't a tumor after all, but I KNOW it's not impacted food! Food? I still have my doubts on that theory but finally I'd discovered just exactly where those hard little thingies I'd been coughing "up" for years were coming from. I still have problems with them. I also have many of the problem lots of you folks have described... a hard time breathing through my nose (hence, I'm a mouth breather), chronic postnasal drip/drainage/whatever, throat sore more often than not, tonsils constantly swollen and inflamed.

I've gone on and on here, haven't I? LOL... sorry, just wanted to tell my story and say I've read every single post in here and as soon as I get married (at which time I'll have medical insurance), I plan to get myself to an ENT and have something done about this... I don't know what, but something WILL be done. I'm sick of the constant sore throat, drip, swollen tonsils, etc. In the meantime, I'm going to look into getting a Waterpic... it seems from some of the posts, that trying to keep my tonsils cleaned out will be a big help. Thanks to everyone for your input and good luck... maybe we can all get some help of some kind eventually.

posted 07-04-2003 04:45 AM            

Anyhoo, my question for you all is this... Does anyone have any idea if other people can smell these rancid things on our breath?? If I knew somebody else could catch even the slightest whiff of these nasty things, I don't think I'd leave my house! My boyfriend told me that most of the time he can't smell them, but he could just be being polite. I'm curious if anyone else has gotten any confirmation from a trusted friend!

Thanx for the all the stories!

~Tara

posted 07-11-2003 02:47 PM            

I saw my first tonsilolith when I was a teenager and thought it was a piece of food. The next time I saw one was many years later. I was preparing to go to the doctor to have it checked out, but noticed after I ate lunch it was gone. I talked to the doctor about it with pretty much the same results as most of you have had. He didn’t really seem to know what it was. He said (as he put it) milking them out probably wouldn’t hurt anything. I have been doing that ever since. I find it embarrassing and I have never told anyone including my husband about it.

As a child I had chronic tonsil problems, but never had them removed. Most of my adult life I have suffered with sinus infections and post-nasal drip from allergies.

posted 07-14-2003 12:13 AM            

I have watch my spots develop very carefully and it is now clear that these spots begin under the skin of my tonsil and slowly work there way out like a blood blister does on your finger. I think these tonsil stones are actually dead cells that have calcified because your tonsil has been fighting an infection. When they break onto the surface some food particles stick to them, but I think that is just incidental. If you break them open they are soft and sometimes smelly just like the stuff you sometimes get out of a rather large zit that is healing over.

In both cases I think they are the debri of a fight your body had with an infection. I had a 10 year battle with tonsil infections that finally stopped when it was discovered I had low thyroid and my immune system was screwed up. Since that time, my tonsil has been slowly shrinking in size and as it does so I get many of these white spots coming out of the tonsil. When the spot drops off, it often leaves a hole that goes some considerable distance into my tonsil. That hole slowly closes and disappears.

So if you have those white spots I think it represents an infection that you had or currently have. If your tonsil is even the least bit swollen then you need to first have your thyroid checked to make sure you have a normal immune system and then to on some long term antibiotic like doxycyline for a month or more to kill and eliminate what ever infection is causes your problem.

In my case I had to take 3 different antibiotics (penicillin, zithromax and cephalexin) one after the other followed by 3 months of Sulfatrim and an antifungal to kill the yeast that started from all those antibiotics. But my infection is clearly gone now and as my tonsil steadily shrinks it is showing more and more of those white spots. Which I think is a good thing because it is the residue of past infections.

posted 07-15-2003 05:53 PM            

Wow. I never imagined so many people had this! I've had tonsil stones since I was 13 or 14. I am now 27. I always thought it was something that I had to 'deal with' as my family doctor told me the same story that may of you got -- "It's just food..." I refused to beleive this, but decided to try and cope with it.

For over ten years I've been picking them out spitting them out and sometimes, in the absolute worst situations, having to SWALLOW them. (your cue to gag) I simply could not put up with it anymore, so I went to see an ENT about a year ago. He told me it was...you guessed it... f.o.o.d. and that my tonsils were healthy, that I shouldnt be concerned.

I found this site last week and immediately printed out the entire contents (for 'backup' or PROOF). I made another appointment with a different ENT; a somewhat younger and more hip doctor. She immediately recognized the fact that I had TONSILOLITHS (amen?) She diagnosed me with chronic tonsilitis and said that the tonsils need to be removed. I agreed. I get them removed in 3 weeks. I know that recovery will be more difficult because I am older, but it's either that or pick, gargle, swab, spit, pick, every day until death. I opted for removal thank you.

Oh, by the way. I gave my wife a flashlight and showed them to her. Her eyes got huge and she dropped the light. Now she gets freaked out when I kiss her. Perhaps I should have waited until a few days before surgery to show her. Oh well.

I hope the rest of you fair well your tonsil stones, aka tonsiloliths, aka vomit varmints, aka puke fluff, aka tonsil rocks, aka "WHATTHEHECKISTHAT!"

I'll post more during and after surgery recovery.