Often times, when we notice that we have little white nuggets in our tonsils, we feel as if something is stuck in our throat. These white nuggets are known as tonsil stones and a lot of people who have them, aren’t aware that they have them.
What Is the Reason for Tonsil Stones?
- They develop when bacteria, mucus, dead skin cells, and leftover food particles begin to deposit in the tonsil crypts.
- They can be whitish or yellowish and their texture is soft and squishy.
- These stones can lead to bad breath, throat irritation, and difficulty swallowing food, and even breathing problems.
Who Is Prone to Tonsil Stones?
- If you suffer from chronic inflammation of the tonsils, if your tonsils are too big, or if you don’t practice good oral hygiene, the risk of tonsil stones is much higher.
- The conventional treatment for tonsil stones is a tonsillectomy or surgical removal of the tonsils.
- However, this doesn’t guarantee that the tonsil stones won’t reoccur.
- Moreover, when you eliminate the tonsils, you actually remove a part of the immunity which is needed to prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the body.
Other Ways to Remove Tonsil Stones
Besides surgery, there are other less invasive methods of removal that you can perform in the comfort of your own home. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Q-Tips
- If the Q-tip is big and visible enough so that you can reach the back of your throat, you can easily remove the tonsil stones.
- Gently push the visible area of the tonsils with the Q-tip until they’re dislodged. Do this in front of a mirror.
- When you apply enough pressure, the stones should pop out from behind the tonsil pockets.
Dental irrigation syringes
- To flush the stones out from the tonsils, point the curved tip of the syringe directly at the pockets in the tonsils affected with the stones.
- Unlike Q-tips, these syringes will help you remove the stones which are deeper in the tonsils and are not visible.
- Make sure to keep the head down so that the stones fall out of the mouth.
- The mixture in the syringe should be comprised from equal parts of 3% hydrogen peroxide and warm water.
- Hydrogen peroxide will ease the removal of the stones since it creates an environment where bacteria cannot thrive.
Oral irrigator
- This water flosser has a motor, a water reservoir, and a specialized water flosser nozzle.
- It’s a method for flossing with water instead of with a string.
- To remove tonsil stones, position the nozzle directly at the tonsil crevices and blast them out.
- Make sure you don’t hurt the tonsils by being over-aggressive.
- Set the irrigator on the lowest setting.
Oral probiotics
- These strains of good bacteria have the power to suffocate the bad bacteria in the mouth which are causing the tonsil stones.
- The most effective probiotic against tonsil stones is S. salivarius K12.
- Take a probiotic capsule, open it, and mix the content inside with 4 oz. of warm water and stir the mixture until the capsule content is completely dissolved in the water.
- Swish the solution in the mouth, i.e. close to the tonsil stones area.
- To achieve this, tilt the head back a bit before spitting the solution out.
- Chewing gums and tubes of toothpaste can also be very helpful in the removal of tonsil stones as well.
