Is it normal to remove things from your tonsil with your tongue?!
Question: My tonsils are naturally bigger than most. I am able to poke at them with my tongue, as odd as that sounds. I find that there are sometimes things lodged in there, which I remove with my tongue. When taken out they look like tiny white things that smell horribly. Has anyone else gone through this? These things sometimes feel as though they imerge from the tonsil. It happens all the time even when I'm not sick.
Answers: My tonsils are naturally bigger than most. I am able to poke at them with my tongue, as odd as that sounds. I find that there are sometimes things lodged in there, which I remove with my tongue. When taken out they look like tiny white things that smell horribly. Has anyone else gone through this? These things sometimes feel as though they imerge from the tonsil. It happens all the time even when I'm not sick.
These things are called tonsilloliths ("tonsil stones.") You have described them perfectly. They are typically white, or whitish-yellow, irregularly-shaped, foul-smelling, and usually smaller than a pea. The tissue lining the tonsils (oral mucosa) is fairly sensitive, so people with this problem often report that they feel an irritation in the back of their throat and are able to pick these critters out of their tonsils.
Like your skin, oral mucosa sheds continuously. The dead cells become incorporated in your saliva and then you swallow them. Yum! One more anatomical fact that you need to know: the surface of your tonsils is pockmarked with deep pits, appropriately called "crypts" (since dead stuff accumulates in these pits.) Oral mucosa lines the crypts. Under normal circumstances, as this mucosa sheds, the dead cells leave the crypts and are swallowed. In some unlucky people, like you and your sister, the dead cells accumulate and glom together to form hard little balls. All of this dead stuff makes great food for bacteria, and of course your oral cavity is colonized by all kinds of bacteria. Consequently, the tonsilloliths are ripe with bacteria. This accounts for the smell.
I think those are normal. I forgot what they are called. You can remove them.
I'd like to know the answer to this one...
It happens all the time to my boyfriend and I, but no one else I ask has any clue what I'm talking about. At least you're not alone.
my friend has that, and she told me about it. she says that she gets white stuff and can pick it out, and sometimes she gets this thing that is like a sunflower seed on her tongue that comes out.
I get it to. I never asked a doc about it. I just thought it was stuck food or funky puss balls (like a cyst) coming loose. and they do stink.. badly
EDIT: Wow, Billy Bob. going to hit up some salt water now!!!
yeah these are tonsil stones. i get them too, they are absolutely disgusting. for me they seem to come and go. although since i quit smoking and became vegan ive noticed that they havent been as common. supposedly what you eat (like sugar, dairy, etc) cant affect this. I cant figure the damn things out, ive never mentioned them to a doctor either, even when i went to an ear nose and throat doctor for tonsilitis. i dont know what can be done about them. ive tried picking at my tonsils with my fingers and toothbrush when i feel like there is something stuck in my throat but this rarely dislodges them. ive also used a "water pik" thing to try and clean out the "crypts" in my tonsils and this was just painful and unsucessful...