Last week I was troubled with some irritant in my throat. Nothing acutely bothersome or painful, mind you, but enough to warrant checking it out. There was this white bump on my tonsils. At first I thought I was getting strep throat, but didn’t feel ill. After a few days, the bump came and went, and I was suspicious it may be a ball of phelgm or something stuck. So I moisened a Q-tip and gently pressed it against the offending bump. To my surprise, a little white mass came off. Upon closer inspection, this little mass was as hard as a rock and gave off the most offensive smell. Checking to see if I had gotten all of it, I was dismayed to discover some more ‘pebbles’ still in the divot of my tonsil that the rock had been nestling. I was able to remove these as well without pain or injury. When I checked again, ANOTHER rock was there! Apparently, my tonsil (only the right one) is FULL of these little rocks; if I swallow/wiggle my tongue enough, it works one to the surface. They take forever to fall out on their own, but using the Qtip I was able to get out almost a dozen. That was earlier today, and so far I haven’t seen anymore. Does anybody know what the heck these are? Is this something serious enough to warrant a doctor’s appointment? :eek:
Go to the doctor.
What is it?
No doctor is needed.
There was a thread about this a while back, but since I have the same problem you do, I feel I can answer your question.
The white “rocks” that you have found are a combination of food and saliva, built up over time in the pits formed in your tonsils. If you can hack it, and you are looking to REALLY gross yourself out (and trust me, it takes some time to do this without inducing the gag reflex), push your finger against your tonsil. You will be amazed (and sickened) by the crap that gathers in your tonsils.
Other than being an annoyance, (and stinking to high heaven) they are no big deal, unless one is dislodged while you are speaking to someone and you fire it out of your mouth. The only way to get rid of them is to have your tonsils removed.
Enjoy!
Is there some sort of epidemic of these things? It’s like the fourth thread on those little boogers.
They are called tonsilloliths (tonsil stones) and are apparently quite common. Googling came up with more than enough hits.
This has been discussed quite a bit on this board. The day someone comes up with a simple, safe way of cleaning the tonsils, there’ll be one more billionaire in the world.
Wow, how did this little tidbit escape my notice for so long? I’ve never once observed little rocks forming around my tonsils and would probably be scared silly if I did.
I’m about to puke reading this, and thankyouverymuch, I no longer have my tonsils. Shit, I’d get 'em removed if I did. Totally grossening!