Belle wrote: How do you know yours is coming from your tonsils?
There are many reasons which make it quite difficult to assume it was coming from anywhere else besides my tonsils.
My palatines were small, but very cryptic. I never knew any of this until a month ago though. I never knew I even had tonsil stones until recently! Occasionally, throughout my life I recalled randomly choking on something every now and then. I used to think it was saliva or something else but I really never paid much attention to it. Now I wish I had.
Before you assume anything about your tonsils, you need to have at least one educated physician tell you what they think about them. You must also dedicate visits for specific reasons if you want the best evaluation. If you schedule an appointment and say "bad breath from tonsils" you are more likely to get an accurate evaluation of the state of your tonsils(even better would be "bb from adenoids" or "bb from palatines"). I've decided that it is almost pointless for any of us to simple say "bad breath" as a reason for our visit. Doctors become overwhelmed and immediately resort to the more common causes of bad breath. Since most of our cases of bb is not like other people's, it actually makes more sense the rarer the occurrence. Know what I mean?
So I had two doctors say my palatines were very cryptic. This was a red flag. And the first doctor said I had no adenoid tissue left, yet that was the most infected! This is why more than one doctor's visit, although costly, can be so important. The first doctor automatically assumed it was only my palatines. When I told him my bb came from my nose and mouth, it was then that he actually used an endoscope but I guess he didn't look too well. When I responded with "I have absolutely no adenoid tissue left?", he responded with "nope, most people adenoids deteriorate with age" and smiled thinking this would be good news to me. This doctor was actually one of the most helpful doctors I had, even with this discrepancy in mind. He was was very amiable and listened to me and ultimately gave me the go for the tonsillectomy. Luckily, he didn't perform the surgery, so I went looking for another doctor to do that.
At this point, I didn't know who would be best but I figured I would let "fate" take its way and see who had the soonest appointment available because I was so eager to get them removed. I called every doctor on the list he gave me, asking for the soonest possible appointment times, and it turned out the last one was the best one, even though the drive was a little further than the rest. It was Thursday and I was able to get in Monday of next week. This was much sooner than anyone else I had called so I gladly agreed. Turns out however that about an hour after the phone call, I got a call back saying someone canceled and I could come in tomorrow! I was apprehensive about everything at this point because I was becoming so used to being disappointed. Usually, I'm not one to look to far into anything, but all the signs were continually pointing me in the direction of getting a tonsillectomy and that this surgeon was a good choice.
When I told the surgeon my problem, he noted too that my tonsils were cryptic and without me having to say much more about my condition he used an endoscope to check my adenoid area. He didn't say anything about it specifically and gave me three options: do nothing, take antibiotics, get them tonsillectomy. I immediately opted for the last one and went and watched a very informative video on how the tonsils hold bacteria. I saw the adenoids in the video too and wanted to ask him about those, but when I went back into the other room for the details on the operation I saw that he had already written down "tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy". I asked him about it and he said he saw some crud back there. I am so thankful that this happened! You have no idea.
Turns out we went with the traditional method and my doc is a also a facial surgeon so he did an amazing job making sure everything was nice and smooth. I believe he even ended up taking out more tissue than just my tonsils. This showed me he really cared when I asked him if it wouldn't be any place where bacteria could hide after the surgery. I'm in a bit of pain now, but I feel it's worth it.
Anyway, I'm sorry that story probably contained way more info than you cared to know.
But to sum it up, why do I feel my bb is from my tonsils?
- Palatines cryptic and infected
- Adenoids cryptic and my doctor told my dad post-op in the waiting room that he found a bunch of "cottage cheese" looking stuff on them
- Breath at its worst day after tonsillectomy because of the crap inside my tonsils was finally released and spread (this is normal)
- Breath improving as each day passes, but won't know the overall results until the bacteria clears up in about 12 more days (the end of the antibiotic)
- Constant bb from both nose and mouth, unaffected by diet and pretty much everything else
- Collected bacteria on tongue every now and then with odor very similar to breath, when thoroughly cleaned however, odor remained but improved a little, bacteria believed to be harvested by tonsils and then spread by means of bodily fluids
- My mother has the same condition, cryptic tonsils are obviously genetically related as someone else on this forum who found relief after removing tonsils had a sister with the same problem. It also appears to be more sex-linked as neither of my brothers inherited the bb. That said, just because no one else in your family has bb, if doesn't mean if isn't from your tonsils. My mom had no one in her immediate family with bb like hers, but I later inherited it.
