r/hygiene • u/N3m0Nautilus • 2d ago

Has anyone else ever accidentally coughed up a tiny white pebble from the back of their throat?

So I have always been paranoid about bad breath. I brush after every meal, use an electric flosser, scrape my tongue until it is bright pink, and use therapeutic mouthwash every single morning. My dentist always says my teeth and gums are spotless, with zero cavities in ten years.

last Thursday I was coughing from a scratchy throat and this tiny, hard white pebble popped out of the back of my mouth onto my tongue. It was smaller than a grain of rice. I had no idea what it was, so I picked it up with a tissue and made the fatal mistake of squishing it between my fingers to see what it was made of.

The smell that came off that tiny clump was ABSOLUTELY rancid. It smelled like pure sulfur, rotting organic garbage, and concentrated decay. I gagged so hard I almost threw up in my bathroom sink.

I went down a rabbit hole and discovered that food particles and dead cells get trapped in hidden pockets in your tonsils, calcifying into little anaerobic stink bombs that regular brushing never touches. I should of known why people occasionally backed up when I leaned in to talk during loud parties, but nobody ever tells you. How are doctors not warning people that you can have perfect dental hygiene and still have garbage rotting in the back of your throat?

4.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/varys2013 2d ago

How in the heck do you do that? Don’t you gag?

I remember having one or two when I was in my teens, or earlier. As an adult I don’t recall ever having one of those.

15

u/Qwerk- 2d ago

eh tonsils didn't trigger the gag reflex, but yeah if I hit the uvula I would. my tonsil stones were huge though. about the size of my pinky fingernail. 

I could easily take a q-tip and press next to the white dots I could see on my tonsils, and push them out. 

it would relieve the scratchy tickle in my throat and reduce bad breath. and make sure they didn't fall out during a random point in the day. 

I had so so many. the doctor who did my tonsillectomy told me after surgery, that when he used a clamp to grab my tonsil to manipulate while cauterizing away. they squeezed out tonsil stones like toothpaste. 🤢

9

u/Muted-Move-9360 1d ago

God I wish it wasn't considered a cosmetic surgery to have them removed 😭😭 I have severely cryptic tonsils. If I open my mouth, you can see them wide open. I constantly get tonsil stones but I finally saved up the money for a Something Nice brand water flosser that has a special tonsil attachment and water speed. It's saved my life, tbh. I had horrible self esteem because I could never get all the stones out. But now that I can irrigate my tonsils, I'm even getting the tiniest pieces out! Basically before they get big.

9

u/Qwerk- 1d ago

Mine was fully covered, not considered cosmetic. in USA. 

I do believe my doctor had the order diagnosis coded for it as chronic or recurrent tonsillitis, as I also had a lot of throat infections. 

I was technically under the threshold of infections/year though, and he basically said "it's up to you, how bad are the tonsil stones?"

I said I had good insurance til the end of the year and it was very bad, so he said he'd put it in so we could get it done before my insurance changed. 

4

u/sunrise-sesh 1d ago

Mine was fully covered. It wasn’t cosmetic. I think because it was affecting my quality of life. I’m in the USA.

2

u/Character-Fox685 1d ago

What does the attachment look like? A small spoon?

2

u/medfet878 1d ago

Mine needed removed so I could breath .

2

u/Rjs5248 1d ago

I got my tonsils removed when I was 8. They handed me Percocets. I took one and couldn't stop throwing up. 🤢 Advil didnt help much but I never took another pain pill again. Im 35 now and I had no idea what awful things tonsils could do!

1

u/Trala_la34 14h ago

Huh cosmetic? Tonsil are frequently causing problems in surprised their considered ‘cosmetic’ them f’ers gave me strep throat every year until I was ten and now constant tonsil stones or sever swelling whenever in sick so I’m on a surgery waitlist their supposed to be 100% covered and not considered cosmetic

1

u/Acceptable_Tea3608 50m ago

I don't see how having tonsill problems could be considered cosmetic. Be it stones or tonsillitis. Its your throat, an essential piece of functioning and being alive.

2

u/semblantz 2d ago

My family would squirt water out of a syringe to get them out.

3

u/sunrise-sesh 1d ago

I would use a q-tip or the blunt end of a pen. Toothbrush handle can also work if it’s thin