Tonsil stones

Tonsil Stones (Tonsilloliths)

Tonsil Stones are a formation combined of food debris, excess phloem, and the remains of white blood cells. The reason why they form in the tonsils is because the tonsil, especially at a young age, is meant to trap foreign debris entering the mouth. It's essentially a protector for your body. White blood cells are your body's normal defense against a multitude of things entering your body but in this case they attack debris in the tonsil, building thicker and thicker and eventually creating a tonsillolith. Tonsil Stones hide in the holes in your tonsils which are technically known as "tonsil crypts".

Tonsil Stone Symptoms

Some typical symptoms of having tonsil stones are chronic bad breath, the feeling of something stuck in your throat that you can't get out, and feeling like you have to brush your teeth more than three times a day, (never feeling like your breath is fresh). Of course if you look in the mirror and you see white things sticking out of your tonsils, or if you cough up little white chunks, they're both a sure sign of having tonsil stones. While harmless in nature they're nothing more than annoyance and they don't have any physical negative effects on your body.

Tonsil Stone Removal

There's a multitude of ways that one can remove a tonsil stone. The most common is using any form of applying pressure to the side of the tonsil to push the tonsil stone out of the crypt. Some use a waterpik to do this, some use a qtip or even just their finger. Be careful of your gag reflex in all cases.

Tonsil Stone Food Aggressors

Some foods that aggravate and promote tonsil stone growth are, dairy products (especially milk), high protein meats like fish, sugars and acidic things like coffee.

Tonsil Stone Prevention - Commercial

While there's many commercial products out there that claim to be effective at combating tonsil stone growth, there's only a handful that actually work well. Some of the brands out there that sell products for this are profresh, breathrx, therabreath, oramd, smartmouth, to name a few.

Tonsil Stone Prevention - Natural

Grapefruit Seed Extract has proven to be the #1 cure for tonsil stones and bad breath, and at around $9 for a bottle of concentrated liquid, it's in some cases hundreds less than what you can spend on trying to cure bad breath. Tee Tree Oil is another essential natural cure for bad breath.

References

Information referenced from Tonsil Stones Help Grapefruit Seed Extract referenced from Grapefruit Seed Extract