bad breath tonsils
He suffers from bad breath odor often wonder if there is a connection between tonsils and bad breath. Usually, this is not the case, but in certain circumstances, multiplying bacteria in the back of the throat in the area of the tonsils can cause a bad odor on the breath. This smell is one of two sources: the rupture of the tissues sound caused by an active infection – pharyngitis – such as strept throat, or the breakdown of dead cells and food particles by anaerobic bacteria that are part of the normal ecosystem of the mouth. This article is the second hypothesis.
To understand the relationship between the tonsils and halitosis, it is useful to understand what tonsils are and where they are. In fact, we have three types of tonsils in the nasopharynx, the area in the back of the mouth and the upper throat. The pharyngeal tonsil (also called adenoids) is in the back of the nose high in the throat. Tonsils are located in the back of the oral cavity and are visible when the mouth is opened widely. Finally, the lingual tonsils are located at the very base of the tongue. These tonsils are part of the lymphatic system – an important part of the body's defenses against invasive and potentially disease-causing organisms. Tonsils that most often lead to an association between tonsils and bad breath are the palatine tonsils.
The palatine tonsils are among the folds of tissue called tonsillar pillars. The tonsils are composed of dense lymphoid tissue and each has between ten and twenty little holes on its surface. Holes small, called crypts of tonsils, collect shed epithelial (skin) cells in the lining of the mouth and throat, white blood cells (leukocytes), both living and dead bacteria, and orally – a combination that can easily explain why the tonsils and bad breath sometimes go together. Situated, as they are, in the back of the throat, these crypts have sinus drainage, saliva, chewed food, and cellular debris constantly passing by them. In some people, particularly those with chronic sinus irritation, post nasal drip, material can accumulate in the tonsil crypts, causing the aggregates that are the link between halitosis and bad breath. These aggregates are called tonsil stones or tonsiloliths.
Tonsiloliths balls are literally some of the cells dead debris and bacteria. Bacteria, the inhabitants of the tonsils, and producers of bad breath, find a food source in the cellular material dead and decaying. The consumption of protein there, that produce smelly sulfur compounds called volatile compounds, as they multiply. While the stones of the amygdala being presented in the crypts of the tonsils, the bad smell is produced, eventually the tonsil stones be large enough to be dislodged and swallowed. Then, new begin to form. For people who tend to develop tonsiloliths, the problem of stones in the crypts of the tonsils and halitosis is likely to be continuous in time, and require a regular program to combat halitosis breath.
R. Drysdale is a freelance writer with more than 25 years experience as a health care professional. She is a contributing editor to Tonsils and Bad Breath at Bad Breath Cure, a blog dedicated to the treatment of bad breath.