Home Remedy
Unheard of experience on tonsil stones.
Sometimes back, I felt a little discomfort in my throat, thought it was something that I had gulped down along with food or liquid. For about a week, I felt something got stuck in my throat and it would not glide down the throat along with chewed food. No changes in the feelings, neither my eating was disturbed nor had any severe pain. Decided to see the doctor for a fear of silent causes that would affect my throat and progressing to dreadful diseases. Discussed with my family, suggestion given was; consult a general practitioner before going for a scan or a scope.
After ten days, I visited a doctor with anxiety, the huge medical equipments flashed through my mind. Waited for an hour at the doctor's door. Finally, I was called, I told the story of my throat discomfort. He took a tongue press to check, along with he used a torch, I had to make ‘aah aah’ sound with tongue down. He gently pressed up and down that made me cough, surprisingly I coughed out and a small whitish mass flew out my mouth and landed on the floor. Doctor picked it up that settled on the floor. He showed it up and said ‘tonsil stone’. A new word in my dictionary, with astonishment I repeated 'tonsil stone'. I have heard of kidney stones and not tonsil stones. A very rare case for him. He took the specimen to his colleagues and said loudly 'look tonsil stones'.
Great relief after ten days of anxiety.
I posted the same specimen picture in my Facebook account, majority comments except one proved, it was something that is not heard of. Probably she may have had experienced the same. She suggested, gargle with asafoetida solution. Asafoetida is used mostly in Indian cooking to enhance flavour and to reduce gas formation. I tried it for the next three days, to my surprise the bits that remained dissolved and disappeared during the mouth rinse.
My curiosity to learn more about tonsil stones made me search in Safari. Let me share what more I got to know. Tonsil stones are known as tonsillithos or tonsilliths. Hardening of mucus, accumulation of bacteria or dry cells in the crypts, the tonsil pockets. Tonsils function as walls to prevent foreign elements from slipping through to the lungs. When the bacteria gets collected they fill the crypts causing little or more discomfort to a person.
Colour may be grey, yellow or white. Though symptoms vary from person to person it can be related to bad breath being the most obvious though some may have redness or irritation in tonsils. The hardened bacteria is benign though it occupies in oral region between the tongue and the palate.
This occurs mostly in teens and to those with large tonsils. May afflict if the dental hygiene is poor.
Besides the cure I tried, there are other self cure options too to get rid of the tonsil stones; scrape with extremely soft tooth brush, use a cotton bud to express them from the tonsil pockets, a simple pain free method, gargling with salt solution to loosen them. A cure beyond all this could be the tonsillectomy surgery.
Home remedy I would recommend is gargle with asafeotida solution for immediate relief.
