My Tonsil Stones; A Decade of Discomfort

by Rob Kenyon
(Philadelphia)

Ever since I was a child, I have always had huge tonsils. Every dentist or orthodontist I saw would always make some remark about how big they were. They were a little troublesome growing up. I had yearly sore throats and earaches that were unbearable. Then all that stopped and something else started. The stones moved in.

At first I thought that my tonsils had gotten bigger and were swallowing my food where it would ferment and make that awful concentrated bad breath smell. Turns out I was partially correct in my assumption. I would almost always feel as if I had something stuck in my throat (like a popcorn shell) I would poke at my tonsils with my fingers until I gagged and try to dislodge the stones from the holes in tonsils or (crypts). I'd rinse and gargle them to death practically drowning in the process. All this would do was to irritate my tonsils more. They would get inflamed and swollen and make my throat feel worse. But what else could I do? I didn't even know what they were!


It wasn't until I had my wisdom teeth taken out that I found an answer. I asked the surgeon about those little pebbles that lodge in your tonsils. He told me they were called tonsilloliths! After painstakingly prying the remaining three wisdom teeth from my reluctant jaw, he handed me the answer to my smelly, irritating problem. It was a syringe. A small plastic syringe with a curved plastic tip. He told me to flush after every meal, in the morning, and at night before bed. Who would thought the answer would be that simple. Well it works!! Those little pebbles come gushing out faster that you can say tonsillectomy. Instantly relieving the pressure and discomfort in the back of your throat and enabling you to direct your focus on more important things in life.

So for everyone suffering from tonsil stones do yourself a huge favor and find yourself a syringe with a plastic tip or a Waterpik. They won't keep them from coming back but they'll produce instant results. I gotta say watching those stones flush out of your throat and into the sink is sooo satisfying. No more bad tasting swigs of water, no more bad breath, or bad tasting food. It worked for me!!!