I find that I keep getting the same questions via the contact form, all worded differently or sometimes similar question which would really be explained by the same answer.
Lots of the questions are really just quick fire questions which I could answer in a moment but it is not really worth writing a long details post on, or I don’t currently have time to go into more detail.
For this reason I have put together this FAQ covering the most asked questions and, in the future, I will expand with an FAQ part 2 and 3 providing answers to some of the questions which I have not had time to answer this time around.
These answers are short and to the point, the purpose of this page is getting quick answers on the site to simple questions which people are seeking my insight on.
How To Get Food Out Of Your Tonsils
It is very unlikely that you will have food stuck in your tonsils, it may feel as though there is food trapped there but it is much more likely that you have tonsil stones. There is a load of advice on this blog explaining how to get rid of them, if you are sure that there is food trapped in your tonsils it will likely dislodge itself within an hour or two but you could accelerate this process by gargling and increasing the amount of water you take in.
What To Do If You Have Tonsil Stones
The simple answer to this question is to remove them yourself, unless you have a complete infestation you should be able to treat them yourself at home and even in extreme cases you should still be able to cope on your own.
The only time you really would need professional or medical level assistance would be if they keep coming back extremely quickly to a chronic level or if they are causing you pain or breathing problems. If either of these things are true then its unlikely that you would have been reading up online for a solution anyhow and are most likely already undergoing some kind of medical treatment.
How Can You Tell If You Have Tonsil Stones
Its quite easy to tell if you have bad tonsil stones but it can be more difficult to establish if you have a tonsil stone or a very mild problem. Note that more difficult does not mean it is not possible just that you need to investigate a little deeper.
Here are a collection of tests you can try to identify tonsil stones, use them in combination to help self-diagnose:
Ear pain or a feeling that something is stuck in your throat
This in itself could be caused by one (or several) other issues, however, it can be tonsil stone related. If you are having ear or throat issues it is well worth carrying out some more checks to see if tonsil stones are the issues, because, if they are, it is such an easy thing to treat.
Taking a look in the mirror
A lot of the time the stones are visible but this is not always the case, looking in the mirror at the back of your throat is a sure fire way to identify tonsil stones, if you can see them at the back of your throat you have tonsil stones.
Poking with your tongue
If you are flexible enough to manoeuvre your tongue to the back of your throat and touch your tonsils you can often feel stones that you could not see or otherwise identify. A few years ago I could not touch my tonsils with my tongue but after a few weeks of trying it seemed as though my tongue found a new level of flexibility and it has been easy for me to run the tip of my tongue across my tonsils ever since.
This is actually my preferred method of diagnosis/checking for tonsil stones, it allows me to check in all of the places within my tonsils which I am not able to see. Also, as I became more familiar with my tonsils and where the stones formed I was able to check those locations quickly and catch small stones as they started to form.
The sniff test
This one is often overlooked but anyone who has ever extracted a tonsil stone themselves and crushed I between their fingers will know the smell that they produce. You can actually detect this smell if you are to press your tongue against your tonsil for a few seconds and then lick the tip of your finger. After a few seconds, if your finger carries the slight smell of tonsil stones it is likely that you have some stones in there that need to be cleaned out.
If your tonsils are perfectly clean, tonsil stones free and not infested with bacteria then there will be no unpleasant odour at all left on your finger.
The hygienist/dentist
Ultimately if you are not sure if you have tonsil stones or not it could be a good idea to get a second opinion from your hygienist/dentist, amazingly a lot of hygienist/dentist know very little about tonsil stones so you might want to have a conversion with them first to decide if they know enough to help you with the problem. In my experience people who have read a little online often know a lot more than a trained hygienist/dentist when it comes to tonsil stones/diagnosis of hygienist/dentist or treating/removing them.
How To Stop Getting Tonsil Stones
The unfortunate answer to the question of how to stop getting tonsil stones is that you probably cannot. Some people will never get tonsil stones and others are susceptible to them for life because of the shape of their tonsils. The one caveated here is that you could prevent them by having your tonsils removed of another similar medical procedure known as a Cryptolysis but these are quite extreme measures and not rarely recommended by medical practitioners.
Rather than asking the question of what you can do to completely stop tonsil stones you would be better focusing on keeping them under control and managing them. You can likely almost stop them but people susceptible to them will never be 100% resilient without some kind of surgical procedure.
There is a section of this blog discussing treatments and preventative measures but in summary the best thing you could do to reduce the likelihood of getting tonsil stones would be to wash your tonsils a few times a week with a waterpik after an initial thorough clean.
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