BB and tonsils

Hi all. It’s been so comforting to read your stories and to know I’m not alone.

My question has to do with BB related to tonsil stones / infected tonsils. I’m hoping that if I share my story someone out there might draw a connection between some obscure details and get one step closer to finding a solution.

My problem is that I have had this awful death smell constantly emanating from my tonsils / back of throat. It would still stink up a car even after I had left it. I have always had those tonsil stones pop out about once a year ever since I was child, but have never had a constant odor. I am open minded, but I am almost totally convinced my BB is related to tonsils/sinuses/lungs in some manner. I would have to estimate that this all started to begin around 22-23 years old, which I noticed other people have experienced too. It became quite noticeable at 24-25. I’m now in my late twenties. I have great oral hygiene, I’m very physically active and I eat a healthy diet. As far as vices go, I smoke. I get a fair amount of post nasal drip. I have had a extremely prolonged case of very mild bronchitis. I recently cut out dairy, which seems to be helping mucus clear up a little. I have fairly severe hyperhidrosis in my underarms which I’ve had since I was 13.

Does anyone know what I mean when I’m talking about the tonsil smell? It’s not the same as morning breath or garlic breath or anything like that. I smell it occasionally on other people’s breath. It’s actually quite a distinct smell, or at least it is to me and it usually smells fairly similar from person to person, just some people are stronger than others. Does anyone else experience this?

As soon as I found out about my breath I immediately changed my hygiene routine and diet. I flushed all that tonsillolith junk out of my tonsils with a dental irrigator and do a daily regime (irrigator, neti pot, anti-bacterial toothpaste, etc) which seems to be combating the problem. You wouldn’t believe how much crud actually came out the first time I flushed, I was SO surprised. There’s no doubt why my breath absolutely reeked. I still haven’t been able to confirm that the smell has 100% completely gone since I’m living abroad right now and I would only feel comfortable asking my immediate family to test my breath. For all I know my BB might be worse and I might just be more accustomed to it now. But something tells me that there has been a big improvement even though I know you can’t smell yourself that well. However, I am starting to get paranoid and thinking that I may possibly be catching a faint odor from myself when I’m speaking with people later in the day, even after I’ve cleaned my tonsils.

A theory I have is that I am mildly lactose intolerant and this may be contributing to the BB in some way. There’s a family history of it and when I was young I could only drink goats milk. I don’t ever feel sick after consuming dairy (which I was consuming far too much of), but I guess I’m just running low on ideas and I’ll try anything at this point.

I’ve also contemplated that the ongoing bronchitis may be causing the smell. Any ideas? Would it get to be that strong of a smell with really only mild bronchitis?

OK, anyway thanks to everyone on this board and God bless you. You guys really are life savers.


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