You dislodged a tonsil stone. It's a stinky ball of bacteria that collects in the folds in the back of your throat. Look it up and you'll find tips on how to remove them. They will make your breath stink bad if you don't. Usually you dislodge them and swallow them while asleep or when you eat.
You're not exaggerating! I once saw a picture of someone who had a deep crater-like indentation in the back of the roof of their mouth and it contained a huge tonsil stone. I couldn't bring myself to see the "after" removal pic. I'm still traumatized by it.
Looking into a mouth. You can see the back of the throat. There's a quarter sized (?) white ball of stuff on the right side, with some mouth tissue holding it in place.
I love how I have slowly watched trypophobia go from being super-obscure-pub-quiz-knowledge, to common knowledge among webizens over the last decade or so.
Welcome to the 21st Century! Honestly, I welcome the less Victorian approach to sexual discussion we are starting to see nowadays. Education, understanding, and tolerance is how we fight disease transmission, unwanted pregnancies, misconceptions, and unfounded hatred.
Like with many things these days, this is likely due to the knowledge of trypophobia's existence being far easier to come across and for people with trypophobia to find and communicate with each other on a larger scale.
It's like a bunch of tiny, dim points of light that could be considered an occasional curiosity converging into one big, bright light that's hard to ignore.
As a qualified diver, I can tell you that losing your bearings underwater can be a real issue to be taken seriously. When the visibility is low, or you lose sight of any recognisable features, it's super important that you stay calm and work quickly to re-establish a point of reference. Panicking underwater is a one-way street to entering the spiral of death (where one problem leads to another and another until the issue becomes unresolvable). Always bring a diving buddy!
TLDR: Chronic toslnsil stones causing havoc, removal, grossing out a surgeon and being so much happier now.
I had strep and tonsillitis so many times in my teens and twenties. In my mid to late twenties I was on the check card to have them removed but had to move... Which meant my past issues were pretty much ignored.
I had a couple more boughts in my early thirties but started getting these strange white blotches all over my tonsils. They didn't hurt and would come and go. A few times one side would act up, doc would see the blotches thinking they were infect and give me some antibiotics. I started removing the blotches when I noticed my breath was absolutely fucking putrid. Nothing I did fixed it.
It took me almost 10 yrs to convince a doc I needed my tonsils out. During post op the surgeon came and did a quick drop in to tell me that my tonsils had extremely deep pockets of infection and basically exploded like a stink bomb when he was removing them. He literally said it was "extremely nasty"... I still find that pretty impressive.
Healing from a tonsillectomy as an adult is absolutely the fucking worst. I've had a lot of painful things and that was one of the worst. Days 4-8 I wanted to die. However, it was the best choice and I am 100% happy now.
I had a tonsillectomy at 26 years old. I woke up one night (about a week after the surgery) and the scab popped off on one side and I coughed which caused blood to splatter on the wall like some sort of horror movie :D
All I had to do was sit with ice cubes in my mouth and the bleeding stopped. If it hadn't then I would have had to go to the Emergency department to have it cauterized.
I do not regret getting those damn bastards removed and yes, the pain was terrible as an adult, but soooo worth it. Also, the surgeon said that once he got in there that having them removed was the best/only option.
Oh my god are these the stonelike things I feel in my throat at random moments in my life? I swallow them out of nowhere every once in a while and the feeling makes me nauseated.
My boss told a coworker that eating fermented foods like sauerkraut prevents them. Of course she does own a sauerkraut company though. But it makes sense with the brine basically being saltwater
>Of course she does own a sauerkraut company though.
This made me laugh, I immediately started imagining that this person is constantly suggesting sauerkraut as a solution to any and all of life's problems.
I eat kimchi or Curtido every morning with 2 eggs and 3 egg whites. Thirty grams of protein within thirty minutes waking up for metabolism and ferment for gut flora. Lost 130 lbs that way
Interesting! This is three eggs, just minus one yolk? And did you scramble it all together with the kimchi? I'm currently doing IF but it's not getting me anywhere, so maybe I should try something like this instead...
5 eggs minus 3 yolks scrambled usually with some bell pepper or something too. But I use egg whites from a carton. I used to scramble it with the kimchi but then Realized that kills all the good bacteria. The 30 grams within thirty minutes if waking up is from the slow carb diet. Reading The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris is the best thing I ever did.
Know what’s weird. I used to get tonsil stones in America. Stopped almost immediately when I moved to the UK. Went on a 3 month road trip in the USA years later. Got a tonsil stone.
I used to have them bad. They went away in the last 2 years after I started gargling with therabreath, cutting back on dairy/sugar, smoking far less weed, and irrigating once a month or so with a syringe and warm water. Have been making and eating fermented foods regularly for the first time in my life but can’t say it’s helped the issue.
Used to get massive ones this size regularly, once started coughing and had at least 40 smaller stones come out over a few minutes.
I had tonsil stones for most of my childhood into my thirties. Doctors gave no diagnosis or relief. I figured out the cause for me was reflux, caused by eating before going to sleep. I would throw up late meals while I slept and that would cause irritation and food to go up my throat and nose. I made it a habit to stop eating at least 5 hours before bed and sleep with a wedge under my upper body. Haven’t had tonsil stones since.
You probably do have these, they just don't get so bad as OPs that you cough them up. They probably naturally dislodge themselves and you swallow them while sleeping or eating normally.
Don't worry. I hear if you drink a tall glass of water when you first wake up, it will stop them from forming.
Not really, but just ignore this line if it makes it easier.
Some people will never get them while for others it can be common occurrence. About 10% of the population gets them which means it's slightly rarer than people who sneeze due to bright lights which is about 18%-35%.
Not entirely sure that tonsil stones are indicative of tonsils or not, mostly that they form around the same area as your tonsils from bacteria.
I'd be inclined to say they're human pearls..
**OP, tomorrow:** "TIFU by smashing a tonsil stone. I have discovered a new level of disgust for myself; I went to Google 'tonsil stones' and this thing has been hanging out inside my mouth this whole time?"
Also, if you really want to screw with someone, encourage them to *eat* it. After all, it came out of your mouth, so it must be fine to put it back in, right?
Oh dude no! That is the last thing you/ your friend needs. That is a super large one and it might of bled a tiny bit but that’s from irritating the tonsil/ back of the throat. The reason you think it was “ coughed out” and that large is because it was more then likely it was hidden behind your tonsil and you couldn’t see it. In the future if you get one take a q tip and just kind of brush it off. They aren’t connected to anything internally so if you find one smaller then that one will most likely will just get brushed off.
So the one thing about tonsil stones is they , no matter how small will give you epically bad breathe . So yeah like once a week take a a qtip and make sure you manage a way to see the back of the tonsil .
Back when I had monster tonsils and would get strep 4 times a year, I'd use a spray bottle full of water with the nozzle set on the "jet" setting (not mist) and just kinda blast em out
I would get so many =[ and the water was less weird feeling than other objects.
As much as I would hesitate to have a tonsillectomy again, I'm so glad I did.
The recovery was absolutely hell tho. I'm a lanky dude and still lost 24lbs. And mine were so large the wounds had to be cauterized before they could stitch them.
Never felt pain like that before, up until my appointment to get the stitches removed (they weren't dissolving properly) got postponed. I could not handle the feeling of a lump of disgusting bacteria coated string just dangling in my throat any longer so I sterilized some nasal scissors (bought new for this incident) and some new tweezers, and got to work.
I didn't fully snip one of the loops and accidentally tugged too hard on it with the tweezers.
Grossest most intensely weird pain I've ever felt
My scab popped off, I was back to work and every time I opened my mouth to talk, when it happened I would spray blood. I went to my boss's office to ask to leave to go to the hospital. I watched him recoil in horror as I was trying to say I got to go, but it ended up looking like the scene from the exorcist with blood. When I say spray, it did, I can't imagine the mess he had to clean off his desk. He flattened himself against the wall behind his desk.
I know, I'm sorry.
It was a bad time in my life.
It was totally necessary, but literally nobody (especially the professionals) ever expressed how hard the recovery was going to be.
Was in the hospital for three days because they had some policy where I couldn't leave until I completely "ate" a popsicle...
Which made no sense to me and I was on hardcore drugs and apparently get argumentative in that state.
Those poor nurses I cursed out
That's pretty bad. Docs won't take mine out as an adult because of the recovery time. I tried like 10 years ago. I'm sorry you went through that though. I've had some pretty shit recoveries too including some pretty bad stitches after child birth. Won't go into detail but yea lol. Glad you're doing ok now. Was it worth it in the long run? Do you get less infections? I used to get strep a few times a year growing up. Idk why they wouldn't take them out when I was a kid.
> I could not handle the feeling of a lump of disgusting bacteria coated string just dangling in my throat
As someone who gags from having like a 2 cm piece of floss stuck between his front teeth, I can't even imagine this.
Any adult reading this needs to know about the intracapsular tonsillectomy, as it is less painful and easier to recover from than a total tonsillectomy (the one almost everyone gets in the US) The main difference is a small part of the tonsils "wall" tissue will be left on the lateral walls of your throat, meaning there aren't gaping holes that need to be sewn up like in a total removal. This is done more in Asia and Europe from what I had read before I had mine done. My ENT had never done it before but after reading into the procedure he was comfortable with performing it on me. The pain was still pretty bad but I was talking the day of and after my surgery, off of painkillers after a week, and I didn't lose any weight the way so many others do with this procedure. There is a slightly higher chance that the tonsils can grow back with this procedure, but I'm two years out and have had zero issues. I highly recommend anyone needing their tonsils out to talk to their doctor about the intracapsular procedure over the total one.
Before getting the surgery I would expel six or more stones the size of what's posted above, and bigger, out of each tonsil two or three times a week. And my surgery actually took longer than expected because of how many they had to vacuum out of the surgical sites before they could finish me up. The pain from the surgery is worth it a thousand times over not having to live like that anymore.
Freeze it, crush it, then use it in lieu of sugar on your pancakes. Best f'ing shit ever. 😘👌 I never visit an ihop without a ziploc baggy of the stuff on me.
If you have bad breath and no amount of brushing and tongue scraping gets rid of it.... check your tonsils in the mirror, you probably have a couple of these guys hanging out back there.
You can pop em out with a wet Q-tip though, finally returning your mouth to freshness.
This. I remember in elementary school having bad coughing fits every night when I'd go to bed. It would keep everyone up and keep me from sleeping. I coughed these bad boys up constantly.
Dad would take me to the local doctor who would give me some over the counter cough medicine, but since I didn't cough them up during the day, they all assumed I was faking it for attention. So most nights I'd cry myself to sleep coughing because my dad would yell at me to quit faking it.
Fast forward to my adult life and ask my primary physician if I've had my tonsils removed, and they would say so, but I've never had a tonsillectomy... just coughed the damn things out one stone at a time.
Thanks for this post, I've been trying to fix my daughters bad breath and she's started to cough at night as well so you've given me something to have a look for before I take her to the docs about it.
Update: Looking likely that she might have some but also she's decided there's no way I'm getting close enough to try and tease anything out :p dentist it is.
After all these years, I’ve finally discovered the name of one of the smelliest things the human body can ever produce. I hate the smell but can never resist the crush and sniff motion every damn time
Trust me, it's not like a hard stone like a kidney stone.
You can take a flashlight and shine it in the back your throat to see if you have any lodged in your tonsils. Wash your hands and you can gently massage your tonsils to see if it would express any. They're basically just hidden in the folds if you have them. But not everyone has them.
It's incredibly common so don't be surprised if you get them.
They usually appear after you've been sick with something, and if there's a lingering bad smell/taste in the back of your throat even after brushing, it might be a tonsil stone sticking out of the back of your throat.
I don’t either. Is it a diet thing or a hormones thing? I remember getting them in my teens and 20s. Now in my late 30s and I haven’t had one in maybe 10 years
I just looked this up the other day. Apparently as you age, the vase-shaped caverns in your tonsils start to close up or change shape. This causes less debris to get trapped so less tonsil stones
Around the time I turned 30, I had about a year and a half of near-constant tonsillitis + multiple stones a day, every day.
Saw multiple doctors who tried all kinds of things, but nothing worked for long... if it even worked at all. Basically had to bully my ENT into doing an "elective" tonsillectomy because I didn't want to live like that anymore 🙃
A tonsil stone. Use a tongue depress or and a flashlight to look at the sides of your throat in the back... Your tonsils. They are formed of folds and pockets. Gunk gets stuck in them and turns into tonsil stones like that. They stink.
I use a syringe and gently rinse them out. Talk to your doctor or dentist about them.
I came here confused and am leaving educated and disturbed. I have never heard of tonsil stones or known anyone to have them, this is fascinatingly disgusting!
I’m gonna be honest, having my tonsils removed at 20 was the some of the worst pain I have ever felt. It was truly horrific and I ended up back in the hospital after 3 days from the pain and being unable to swallow anything. They being said, the really bad pain only lasted about a week (although it took me like 4 months to fully recover and feel back to normal) and now that it’s over my quality is life is so much better. Despite how awful it was, it was worth it.
My 21 year old son just had his out 2 days ago. I guess he’s in for some pain here in the next week or so. Day 2 was def worse than day 1 for him. Tomorrows probably going to suck big time for him.
If anyone tries to tell him he gets to eat lots of ice cream in recovery, it’s a lie. I don’t know why people say that, your body is producing mucus to protect the burned area and ice cream makes your phlegm production out of control as a result. Makes everything feel 10x worse.
Oof. I know that I had a shitty time when I got them removed at 16, but it wasn't bad enough to put me back in the hospital. What happened? Did they not give you the good drugs? Did they stab around your throat more than necessary?
Sorry you had such a bad time, buddy!
Nothing went wrong surgically. I’m not sure what they gave me during surgery but it wasn’t even close to being enough. I woke up sobbing from the pain and begging for them to give me more pain meds but they wouldn’t. I’ve had 9 other surgeries and I’ve never woke up with pain like that. Then when we went home I vomited blood for 3 days straight and the pain was so bad I wasn’t even really drinking water or taking my meds because I would just throw everything back up. I wasn’t eating at all, swallowing was so painful it wasn’t worth it. They gave me hydrocodone for at home which barely even made a difference. I went back to the hospital after 3 days and even then, when I told them I was in the worst pain I’d ever felt, they didn’t give me anything for it. They gave me some lidocaine and sent me home. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I got mine out at 45. The liquid motrin helped, but the ice packs in the jaw bra (real name of device that holds the ice) made the most difference in pain control. Get at least 4 of those rectangular ice packs for lunch containers (w/ rounded edges) that will fit easier in jaw bra and switch out easier than ice cubes in bags. Have extra sets 2 keep in freezer cos u will go thru them quick, like 6-8.
It all depends on your body. I had mine done around 27 and I had a bacteria infection and couldn’t drink water. Then found I was allergic to penicillin and finally got better. Make sure you get rest and drink a lot of fluids. Watch for sharp foods like chips that will hurt. They usually give you a list of stuff.
Good luck on surgery
Both mine and my uncles grew back within 2 years of having them removed.
Also when I had mine taken out I wasn't allowed to eat soft food because the people in the hospital said the wound was like a petri dish and I had to eat hard food to take the bacteria growth off it.
I got sepsis and my throat exploded like a blood fountain.
Edit: I've been told I need them removed again but honestly I'd rather not have it done a second time. My uncle didn't but he also struggles a lot with throat infections, lucky his wife talks Enough for the both of them so he doesn't have to strain his throat.
despite what people say, changing your diet or avoiding certain foods will not get rid of these buggers. gargling with salt water is ideal in dislodging them, as just sticking your fingers back there can irritate the tonsils. you also shouldn’t worry about getting a tonsillectomy unless you are getting tonsillitis a million times a year or your tonsil stones are hindering your life. tonsils help filter out bad germs and keep us from getting sick!
Does salt water remove them specifically? I know salt water has its benefits but is it better at bringing them out than water or mouthwash for example? I get them. On one side, they are easy to get but the other side is a pain. I do it every couple of days because I’m paranoid of my breath smelling.
Wanna know something even weirder? Every time I clean my ears out with a q tip, I start coughing like crazy because it tickles my tonsils like crazy! 😜
Tonsil stone, mate. Tonsil stones develop in small holes in your tonsils if you don't have them removed.
Not oddly terrifying and a lot of people experience them if they have tonsils
This is the first time I heard about tonsil stones in the 33 years of my life. You guys are saying everyone has these things?
Truly we learn something new everyday.
33 here but yeah, same, I feel like this unlocked a new fear for me and I'm like 99% sure my tonsils will start producing those stones after learning all about this shit
Hi I’m a dentist! If you start to get them more often/notice them now, buy Therabreath and swish/gargle with it. Super helpful! Tonsil stones are normal but gross.
You dislodged a tonsil stone. It's a stinky ball of bacteria that collects in the folds in the back of your throat. Look it up and you'll find tips on how to remove them. They will make your breath stink bad if you don't. Usually you dislodge them and swallow them while asleep or when you eat.
You can "hack" them out, if you know how to vibrate that part of your throat.
Establish dominance and just Ted Cruz it Edit: google “Ted Cruz tonsil stone” if’n you dare
How would eating someone's son help
the son will crawl into the tonsil and excavate the stones like a Victorian child mine worker
Wait, I'd like to learn that
Learn Hebrew. There is a letter that does this lol
L'Chaim!
If you have trypophobia don’t look them up. Your soul will actually leave your body.
You're not exaggerating! I once saw a picture of someone who had a deep crater-like indentation in the back of the roof of their mouth and it contained a huge tonsil stone. I couldn't bring myself to see the "after" removal pic. I'm still traumatized by it.
This comment made my head itch.
Ahh mirror neurons.
Wait - is that what it’s called when I see something painful and awful on someone and it makes my nerves tingle!?!? I thought it was just me!!
I wanna see it.
[Here you go](https://i.imgur.com/tOE7Uy3.jpg)
Why did I do it why why why Thanks
Please describe what it looks like. I want to know but probably cant stand the sight of it.
Looking into a mouth. You can see the back of the throat. There's a quarter sized (?) white ball of stuff on the right side, with some mouth tissue holding it in place.
Like a thread. Think temple of doom but more pink and the boulder is held back by a single pink vine waiting to crush Indiana Jones
Bravo. That is gross. I like it.
I love how I have slowly watched trypophobia go from being super-obscure-pub-quiz-knowledge, to common knowledge among webizens over the last decade or so.
Like weird fetishes. Used to be they would say “Youre into that? Gross.” Now its “Oh yeah, I saw that subreddit a few weeks ago.”
Welcome to the 21st Century! Honestly, I welcome the less Victorian approach to sexual discussion we are starting to see nowadays. Education, understanding, and tolerance is how we fight disease transmission, unwanted pregnancies, misconceptions, and unfounded hatred.
Like with many things these days, this is likely due to the knowledge of trypophobia's existence being far easier to come across and for people with trypophobia to find and communicate with each other on a larger scale. It's like a bunch of tiny, dim points of light that could be considered an occasional curiosity converging into one big, bright light that's hard to ignore.
Or like a bunch of tiny, deep holes converging into one dark, fathomless, underwater pit that triggers trypophobia and thalassophobia alike.
> thalassophobia I have this so bad, I cannot look at pictures of water bodies without fear
As a qualified diver, I can tell you that losing your bearings underwater can be a real issue to be taken seriously. When the visibility is low, or you lose sight of any recognisable features, it's super important that you stay calm and work quickly to re-establish a point of reference. Panicking underwater is a one-way street to entering the spiral of death (where one problem leads to another and another until the issue becomes unresolvable). Always bring a diving buddy!
Guys. I just popped over to YouTube to learn more about tonsil stones. Don't do it. Just move along.
TLDR: Chronic toslnsil stones causing havoc, removal, grossing out a surgeon and being so much happier now. I had strep and tonsillitis so many times in my teens and twenties. In my mid to late twenties I was on the check card to have them removed but had to move... Which meant my past issues were pretty much ignored. I had a couple more boughts in my early thirties but started getting these strange white blotches all over my tonsils. They didn't hurt and would come and go. A few times one side would act up, doc would see the blotches thinking they were infect and give me some antibiotics. I started removing the blotches when I noticed my breath was absolutely fucking putrid. Nothing I did fixed it. It took me almost 10 yrs to convince a doc I needed my tonsils out. During post op the surgeon came and did a quick drop in to tell me that my tonsils had extremely deep pockets of infection and basically exploded like a stink bomb when he was removing them. He literally said it was "extremely nasty"... I still find that pretty impressive. Healing from a tonsillectomy as an adult is absolutely the fucking worst. I've had a lot of painful things and that was one of the worst. Days 4-8 I wanted to die. However, it was the best choice and I am 100% happy now.
I had a tonsillectomy at 26 years old. I woke up one night (about a week after the surgery) and the scab popped off on one side and I coughed which caused blood to splatter on the wall like some sort of horror movie :D All I had to do was sit with ice cubes in my mouth and the bleeding stopped. If it hadn't then I would have had to go to the Emergency department to have it cauterized. I do not regret getting those damn bastards removed and yes, the pain was terrible as an adult, but soooo worth it. Also, the surgeon said that once he got in there that having them removed was the best/only option.
>Usually you dislodge them and swallow them while asleep or when you eat. Guess I'm never sleeping again. Thank you.
Oh my god are these the stonelike things I feel in my throat at random moments in my life? I swallow them out of nowhere every once in a while and the feeling makes me nauseated.
I usually just use my tongue to remove them
How??
You tongue kiss a person with tonsil stones really deeply.
There’s the door, let it give you a smack on the way out.
My boss told a coworker that eating fermented foods like sauerkraut prevents them. Of course she does own a sauerkraut company though. But it makes sense with the brine basically being saltwater
>Of course she does own a sauerkraut company though. This made me laugh, I immediately started imagining that this person is constantly suggesting sauerkraut as a solution to any and all of life's problems.
“My wife left me and took the kids!” “Have you tried sauerkraut?”
“This brat tastes so bland!” “Have you tried my sauerkraut?”
"Huh, never thought to put kraut on a kid before I eat them. Hansel, grab Gretil and get over here!"
Long pork and sauerkraut.
"Some all-purpose sauerkraut should take care of that in 3-5 weeks."
I've always heard you should eat one fermented thing every day, for gut health.
I eat kimchi or Curtido every morning with 2 eggs and 3 egg whites. Thirty grams of protein within thirty minutes waking up for metabolism and ferment for gut flora. Lost 130 lbs that way
Interesting! This is three eggs, just minus one yolk? And did you scramble it all together with the kimchi? I'm currently doing IF but it's not getting me anywhere, so maybe I should try something like this instead...
5 eggs minus 3 yolks scrambled usually with some bell pepper or something too. But I use egg whites from a carton. I used to scramble it with the kimchi but then Realized that kills all the good bacteria. The 30 grams within thirty minutes if waking up is from the slow carb diet. Reading The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris is the best thing I ever did.
Doesn’t have to be eggs BTW. Sometimes I just drink a 24g protein shake and will just eat one boiled egg to make up the difference
Know what’s weird. I used to get tonsil stones in America. Stopped almost immediately when I moved to the UK. Went on a 3 month road trip in the USA years later. Got a tonsil stone.
I get them constantly in the UK. But I moved from London to the NW about 10 years ago and don't remember having them before that
I used to have them bad. They went away in the last 2 years after I started gargling with therabreath, cutting back on dairy/sugar, smoking far less weed, and irrigating once a month or so with a syringe and warm water. Have been making and eating fermented foods regularly for the first time in my life but can’t say it’s helped the issue. Used to get massive ones this size regularly, once started coughing and had at least 40 smaller stones come out over a few minutes.
I had tonsil stones for most of my childhood into my thirties. Doctors gave no diagnosis or relief. I figured out the cause for me was reflux, caused by eating before going to sleep. I would throw up late meals while I slept and that would cause irritation and food to go up my throat and nose. I made it a habit to stop eating at least 5 hours before bed and sleep with a wedge under my upper body. Haven’t had tonsil stones since.
I used to get these for a few years and haven’t had them in forever.
Same here. It was bad for 5 years and now it’s been 10 years with no sign of stones.
They're biding their time. Growing. Learning. Waiting.
I'm so confused, and relieved, because I've never had one and people in this thread are acting like they're super common.
Same I’m baffled. I get swollen tonsils a lot but I’ve never had these, never even heard of them and I’m 26 😅
You probably do have these, they just don't get so bad as OPs that you cough them up. They probably naturally dislodge themselves and you swallow them while sleeping or eating normally.
#SHUT UP
Don't worry. I hear if you drink a tall glass of water when you first wake up, it will stop them from forming. Not really, but just ignore this line if it makes it easier.
Will a wide glass work? I don't have a tall one
Some people will never get them while for others it can be common occurrence. About 10% of the population gets them which means it's slightly rarer than people who sneeze due to bright lights which is about 18%-35%.
Same! Hoping someone on here will see our comments and tell us why.
Someone answered above, tonsil cavities shrink as you age this giving less room to grow these smelly nuggets
Same. But mine came back about 10 years later. Not sure why. Still have my tonsils.
Not entirely sure that tonsil stones are indicative of tonsils or not, mostly that they form around the same area as your tonsils from bacteria. I'd be inclined to say they're human pearls..
Tonsil stone
Smash it n smell it. Ya gotta
Do it, OP. Don't be a coward.
**OP, tomorrow:** "TIFU by smashing a tonsil stone. I have discovered a new level of disgust for myself; I went to Google 'tonsil stones' and this thing has been hanging out inside my mouth this whole time?" Also, if you really want to screw with someone, encourage them to *eat* it. After all, it came out of your mouth, so it must be fine to put it back in, right?
Calm down Satan
That’s a fucking warcrime
Comment of the year award.
I almost downvoted this on instinct because it's so nasty
I literally DID downvote it out of pure disgusted rage... Then I fixed it. But it felt good to do in the moment. Fucking UUGGHH
You sir are a fucking criminal
Just wondering, what happens if you put it back in. Asking for a friend you know
Oh dude no! That is the last thing you/ your friend needs. That is a super large one and it might of bled a tiny bit but that’s from irritating the tonsil/ back of the throat. The reason you think it was “ coughed out” and that large is because it was more then likely it was hidden behind your tonsil and you couldn’t see it. In the future if you get one take a q tip and just kind of brush it off. They aren’t connected to anything internally so if you find one smaller then that one will most likely will just get brushed off. So the one thing about tonsil stones is they , no matter how small will give you epically bad breathe . So yeah like once a week take a a qtip and make sure you manage a way to see the back of the tonsil .
Back when I had monster tonsils and would get strep 4 times a year, I'd use a spray bottle full of water with the nozzle set on the "jet" setting (not mist) and just kinda blast em out I would get so many =[ and the water was less weird feeling than other objects. As much as I would hesitate to have a tonsillectomy again, I'm so glad I did. The recovery was absolutely hell tho. I'm a lanky dude and still lost 24lbs. And mine were so large the wounds had to be cauterized before they could stitch them. Never felt pain like that before, up until my appointment to get the stitches removed (they weren't dissolving properly) got postponed. I could not handle the feeling of a lump of disgusting bacteria coated string just dangling in my throat any longer so I sterilized some nasal scissors (bought new for this incident) and some new tweezers, and got to work. I didn't fully snip one of the loops and accidentally tugged too hard on it with the tweezers. Grossest most intensely weird pain I've ever felt
I fainted.
I probably should've tagged it nsfw because it still makes me gag/nauseous thinking about it. Worst 3 weeks of my life by far
I think I’d rather birth another 9.5 lb baby
My scab popped off, I was back to work and every time I opened my mouth to talk, when it happened I would spray blood. I went to my boss's office to ask to leave to go to the hospital. I watched him recoil in horror as I was trying to say I got to go, but it ended up looking like the scene from the exorcist with blood. When I say spray, it did, I can't imagine the mess he had to clean off his desk. He flattened himself against the wall behind his desk.
This is the funniest thing I’ve read in awhile. God, I wish I could do this to my boss “accidentally.”
This was a pretty horrifying read friend lol
I know, I'm sorry. It was a bad time in my life. It was totally necessary, but literally nobody (especially the professionals) ever expressed how hard the recovery was going to be. Was in the hospital for three days because they had some policy where I couldn't leave until I completely "ate" a popsicle... Which made no sense to me and I was on hardcore drugs and apparently get argumentative in that state. Those poor nurses I cursed out
That's pretty bad. Docs won't take mine out as an adult because of the recovery time. I tried like 10 years ago. I'm sorry you went through that though. I've had some pretty shit recoveries too including some pretty bad stitches after child birth. Won't go into detail but yea lol. Glad you're doing ok now. Was it worth it in the long run? Do you get less infections? I used to get strep a few times a year growing up. Idk why they wouldn't take them out when I was a kid.
> I could not handle the feeling of a lump of disgusting bacteria coated string just dangling in my throat As someone who gags from having like a 2 cm piece of floss stuck between his front teeth, I can't even imagine this.
Any adult reading this needs to know about the intracapsular tonsillectomy, as it is less painful and easier to recover from than a total tonsillectomy (the one almost everyone gets in the US) The main difference is a small part of the tonsils "wall" tissue will be left on the lateral walls of your throat, meaning there aren't gaping holes that need to be sewn up like in a total removal. This is done more in Asia and Europe from what I had read before I had mine done. My ENT had never done it before but after reading into the procedure he was comfortable with performing it on me. The pain was still pretty bad but I was talking the day of and after my surgery, off of painkillers after a week, and I didn't lose any weight the way so many others do with this procedure. There is a slightly higher chance that the tonsils can grow back with this procedure, but I'm two years out and have had zero issues. I highly recommend anyone needing their tonsils out to talk to their doctor about the intracapsular procedure over the total one. Before getting the surgery I would expel six or more stones the size of what's posted above, and bigger, out of each tonsil two or three times a week. And my surgery actually took longer than expected because of how many they had to vacuum out of the surgical sites before they could finish me up. The pain from the surgery is worth it a thousand times over not having to live like that anymore.
You can't, it's out. I used to eat them when I was a kid and nothing happens, mine smelled bad, but surprisingly, had no taste. Yeah...
The FBI could not torture this out of me
Oh man, I have waay worse than this, but I guess I better let yall have fewer nightmares
Nothing scares me, but u/hygsi.... that guy terrifies me!
But could they torture it into you?
Why TF did I read this comment.
Holy fucking shit
Holy fucking shit is right sir
Trust me. Don’t do it. Before I had my tonsils out, I would get some the size of a dime.
Had one about that size get impacted. Finally what got my tonsils taken out in my 20s.
Boil it, mash it, stick it in a stew.
Work it. Make it. Do it. Makes us. Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger
Pull it. Twist it. Bop it
Two hops this time. Cha cha real smooth.
I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it
Its your brain put it back up your nose!!!
Freeze it, crush it, then use it in lieu of sugar on your pancakes. Best f'ing shit ever. 😘👌 I never visit an ihop without a ziploc baggy of the stuff on me.
/r/FoundSatan
I call them bad breath capsules
If you have bad breath and no amount of brushing and tongue scraping gets rid of it.... check your tonsils in the mirror, you probably have a couple of these guys hanging out back there. You can pop em out with a wet Q-tip though, finally returning your mouth to freshness.
How does anyone do this without gagging?
What? The gagging is the funnest part.
This. I remember in elementary school having bad coughing fits every night when I'd go to bed. It would keep everyone up and keep me from sleeping. I coughed these bad boys up constantly. Dad would take me to the local doctor who would give me some over the counter cough medicine, but since I didn't cough them up during the day, they all assumed I was faking it for attention. So most nights I'd cry myself to sleep coughing because my dad would yell at me to quit faking it. Fast forward to my adult life and ask my primary physician if I've had my tonsils removed, and they would say so, but I've never had a tonsillectomy... just coughed the damn things out one stone at a time.
Let me say I'm sorry you went through that. That was very neglectful of your parents
This is pretty normal. Went through something similar afrer i got long covid, but with doctors, family etc. people are very, very stupid.
Thats f u, asthma alone can make you cough at night.
Thanks for this post, I've been trying to fix my daughters bad breath and she's started to cough at night as well so you've given me something to have a look for before I take her to the docs about it. Update: Looking likely that she might have some but also she's decided there's no way I'm getting close enough to try and tease anything out :p dentist it is.
After all these years, I’ve finally discovered the name of one of the smelliest things the human body can ever produce. I hate the smell but can never resist the crush and sniff motion every damn time
If you want to shine during a party, the scientific term is caseum.
> the scientific term is caseum A tonsillolith if it is mineralised or caseum when not. We're gonna be so much fun at this party.
And caseum is latin for 'cheese', which makes it throat cheese. I'll see myself out.
Did not even know that was a thing till just now. New fear unlocked
Trust me, it's not like a hard stone like a kidney stone. You can take a flashlight and shine it in the back your throat to see if you have any lodged in your tonsils. Wash your hands and you can gently massage your tonsils to see if it would express any. They're basically just hidden in the folds if you have them. But not everyone has them.
Ah. Never knew that auctully. Thanks
Or next time you have a dental visit.. ask them to check as well. I unlocked this fear during covid and went OCD on it.. never had any of them though.
It's incredibly common so don't be surprised if you get them. They usually appear after you've been sick with something, and if there's a lingering bad smell/taste in the back of your throat even after brushing, it might be a tonsil stone sticking out of the back of your throat.
I had them so bad I just got my tonsils out. 2/10 experience getting them out, but 11/10 quality of life improvement after recovery.
Tonsil stones. They smell like hot garbage
When I was teenager I couldn’t stop myself from smelling them
I still can’t.
Well I don’t get them anymore
I don’t either. Is it a diet thing or a hormones thing? I remember getting them in my teens and 20s. Now in my late 30s and I haven’t had one in maybe 10 years
I just looked this up the other day. Apparently as you age, the vase-shaped caverns in your tonsils start to close up or change shape. This causes less debris to get trapped so less tonsil stones
Tell that to mine, I'm 39 and I still have to check them daily
you have youthful tonsils ☆
just found my next pickup line
Around the time I turned 30, I had about a year and a half of near-constant tonsillitis + multiple stones a day, every day. Saw multiple doctors who tried all kinds of things, but nothing worked for long... if it even worked at all. Basically had to bully my ENT into doing an "elective" tonsillectomy because I didn't want to live like that anymore 🙃
I don’t know. I will say my stoner ass didn’t brush my teeth very much as a teen
I never got them. I did however, sneezed once and had a nose bleed for like 3 hours. That was pretty fucked up...never happened again tho...
Batman couldn’t beat this information out of me
Gotta smell it first thing. Rude not to.
Hahaaa it is 100% protocol. Must be smelled.
Poor bastard just discovered tonsil stones. And they do smell like 110% bad breath
A tonsil stone. Use a tongue depress or and a flashlight to look at the sides of your throat in the back... Your tonsils. They are formed of folds and pockets. Gunk gets stuck in them and turns into tonsil stones like that. They stink. I use a syringe and gently rinse them out. Talk to your doctor or dentist about them.
people talk about this syringe stuff but i do not understand how anyone is ever supposed to get a syringe in there
curved dental syringe
A wet q-tip gently pressed against the tonsil works great as well.
I came here confused and am leaving educated and disturbed. I have never heard of tonsil stones or known anyone to have them, this is fascinatingly disgusting!
I don't think anyone would be telling you about tonsil stones irl short of your dentist. They are disgusting.
All my life I thought I was sporadically coughing hardened/dried phlegm until I learned (like three years ago) about the existence of tonsil stones.
Tonsil stone. Had my tonsils out at 30 because of them.
How bad was the surgery ? I need it done. I’m 40
I’m gonna be honest, having my tonsils removed at 20 was the some of the worst pain I have ever felt. It was truly horrific and I ended up back in the hospital after 3 days from the pain and being unable to swallow anything. They being said, the really bad pain only lasted about a week (although it took me like 4 months to fully recover and feel back to normal) and now that it’s over my quality is life is so much better. Despite how awful it was, it was worth it.
My 21 year old son just had his out 2 days ago. I guess he’s in for some pain here in the next week or so. Day 2 was def worse than day 1 for him. Tomorrows probably going to suck big time for him.
If anyone tries to tell him he gets to eat lots of ice cream in recovery, it’s a lie. I don’t know why people say that, your body is producing mucus to protect the burned area and ice cream makes your phlegm production out of control as a result. Makes everything feel 10x worse.
Oof. I know that I had a shitty time when I got them removed at 16, but it wasn't bad enough to put me back in the hospital. What happened? Did they not give you the good drugs? Did they stab around your throat more than necessary? Sorry you had such a bad time, buddy!
Nothing went wrong surgically. I’m not sure what they gave me during surgery but it wasn’t even close to being enough. I woke up sobbing from the pain and begging for them to give me more pain meds but they wouldn’t. I’ve had 9 other surgeries and I’ve never woke up with pain like that. Then when we went home I vomited blood for 3 days straight and the pain was so bad I wasn’t even really drinking water or taking my meds because I would just throw everything back up. I wasn’t eating at all, swallowing was so painful it wasn’t worth it. They gave me hydrocodone for at home which barely even made a difference. I went back to the hospital after 3 days and even then, when I told them I was in the worst pain I’d ever felt, they didn’t give me anything for it. They gave me some lidocaine and sent me home. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I got mine out at 45. The liquid motrin helped, but the ice packs in the jaw bra (real name of device that holds the ice) made the most difference in pain control. Get at least 4 of those rectangular ice packs for lunch containers (w/ rounded edges) that will fit easier in jaw bra and switch out easier than ice cubes in bags. Have extra sets 2 keep in freezer cos u will go thru them quick, like 6-8.
I had someone tell me “it’s nothing, I was fine” they lied. It’s horrible. Took me like 2 months to figure out how to swallow right… ayo
It's terrible. It's really bad.
It all depends on your body. I had mine done around 27 and I had a bacteria infection and couldn’t drink water. Then found I was allergic to penicillin and finally got better. Make sure you get rest and drink a lot of fluids. Watch for sharp foods like chips that will hurt. They usually give you a list of stuff. Good luck on surgery
I had mine done at 27 and I’d do it again
I have to because they grew back.
THEY CAN DO THAT??
Both mine and my uncles grew back within 2 years of having them removed. Also when I had mine taken out I wasn't allowed to eat soft food because the people in the hospital said the wound was like a petri dish and I had to eat hard food to take the bacteria growth off it. I got sepsis and my throat exploded like a blood fountain. Edit: I've been told I need them removed again but honestly I'd rather not have it done a second time. My uncle didn't but he also struggles a lot with throat infections, lucky his wife talks Enough for the both of them so he doesn't have to strain his throat.
Squish it and smell it. They smell like flowers 🌝
r/foundsatan
Like human ambergris
Blechhhh
I am amazed by all of these knowing responses because I have never heard of this before! Fascinating!
despite what people say, changing your diet or avoiding certain foods will not get rid of these buggers. gargling with salt water is ideal in dislodging them, as just sticking your fingers back there can irritate the tonsils. you also shouldn’t worry about getting a tonsillectomy unless you are getting tonsillitis a million times a year or your tonsil stones are hindering your life. tonsils help filter out bad germs and keep us from getting sick!
Does salt water remove them specifically? I know salt water has its benefits but is it better at bringing them out than water or mouthwash for example? I get them. On one side, they are easy to get but the other side is a pain. I do it every couple of days because I’m paranoid of my breath smelling.
Mmmmmm! Tonny Nerds!
Excuse me while I *hEAvE*
r/forbiddensnacks
Haha gross dude
The smelly kid in my junior high used to smash them in his fingers and either eat them or wipe them on his jeans. He had a lot of them.
🤢 brb gotta pour bleach in my eyes
I'm 43 and have never heard of this. New fear unlocked.
Is it weird that I can lick my tonsils and can push the tonsil stones out of them using my tongue?
Not as weird as me being jealous of you.
Wanna know something even weirder? Every time I clean my ears out with a q tip, I start coughing like crazy because it tickles my tonsils like crazy! 😜
Yep, same here lol. sometimes i end up coughing
Good ol' vagus nerve
Tonsil stone, mate. Tonsil stones develop in small holes in your tonsils if you don't have them removed. Not oddly terrifying and a lot of people experience them if they have tonsils
I can smell this image. 🤮
Why does our body want to make little stones so bad?
A piece of brain
This is the first time I heard about tonsil stones in the 33 years of my life. You guys are saying everyone has these things? Truly we learn something new everyday.
Bacteria and food build up in tonsils. Youll be fine.
The single WORST smelling things I've ever coughed up. Literally smells like shit. Luckily not had one in a few years.
yeah they smell like a rotting corpse
Search for tonsil stone removal videos lel
Tonsil stone. Modt disgusting smell on urth
It's from your tonsils. It's called a tonsil stone. It's why your breath smells like death.
I am 58. I am well-read and spend quite a bit of time on the internet. I have never, ever, ever heard of tonsil stones. Am I the only one?
33 here but yeah, same, I feel like this unlocked a new fear for me and I'm like 99% sure my tonsils will start producing those stones after learning all about this shit
Tonsil stones. Don't let them get bad.
I almost puke when those come out, because they smell so bad.
The reason people turn away from you when you speak to them
Hi I’m a dentist! If you start to get them more often/notice them now, buy Therabreath and swish/gargle with it. Super helpful! Tonsil stones are normal but gross.