Our tonsils are among the first lines of defense against illness. They work like skimmers or nets, trapping bacteria and viruses as they pass through the throat. But they don’t always work the way they’re supposed to. On occasion bacteria, dead cells and mucous can become trapped in the crevices of the tonsils, gathering and hardening into small white or yellowish stones called tonsil stones.

Why do they occur? Simply, they come because “garbage” gathers around your tonsils, and when that garbage (things like postnasal drip, food particles, and bacteria) gets caught in tonsil crevices, it hardens into small yellow colored stones that can look like white spots at the back of the throat. Overactive salivary glands and a reaction to dairy products can also cause tonsiliths.

It wasn’t too long ago that people simply thought these tonsil stones were bits of food or small bits of plaque that got caught in the back of the throat. Many of these tonsiliths are very small indeed, such that they can often be overlooked in normal examinations, and often aren’t caught until they’re seen on something like a CT scan.

Do you have tonsiliths? That depends; symptoms can be embarrassing and unpleasant indeed. If you have tonsil stones, you can feel as though something is stuck in the back of your throat or that your throat is somehow “tightening.” You may have a metallic taste in your mouth, and you’ll almost always have chronic bad breath.

However, the good news is, there are ways to treat tonsil stones. A thorough gargling and/or brushing routine can help take care of them, as can reaching back with your finger or the back of your toothbrush, for example, to gently scrape them off. You can get rid of them by squeezing them out and brushing upwards gently from the bottom of the tonsil up, pressing gently as you go. Cotton swabs can also be substituted for the toothbrush if you so wish. There are other methods out there; simply Google, “tonsiliths,” or “tonsil stones,” and you’ll come up with a variety of ways to get rid of these nasty but usually relatively innocuous occurrences.

If tonsiliths are particularly severe, surgery may be recommended. Cryptolysis involves having a surgeon remove tonsiliths with a laser, and then smoothing tonsil surfaces so that tonsiliths can’t regrow. Remember, though, even though this may seem like a good idea, when the tonsil surfaces are smoothed, this negate some of the benefits of the rough surfaces’ catching of bacteria and other foreign matter as a means to prevent infection and so on.

A last resort is that you can have your tonsils removed, of course, but this will take care of just the tonsiliths, not the bad breath. Tonsiliths can also reform even so. Surgery can be expensive and painful, and it can take you up to a month to completely recover from it.

Beyond that, it may simply be better to manage tonsiliths by practicing good oral hygiene and following a healthy diet. Cut down on your dairy intake if you have to and make sure you brush regularly, especially after meals and before bed. This will help keep food from accumulating in your throat such that tonsiliths could form. Gargling as part of oral hygiene is also a good way to keep tonsil stones at bay, as is drinking plenty of water. And all of these tips, of course, are good for your health in general — not just as preventatives for tonsiliths.