We all know about tonsils….you know…those ball things in the back of the throat that collect all sorts of junk when you are sick. Or, maybe you are one of those lucky people who gets tonsil stones. Mmmm…don’t those smell great (not!).
But what do tonsils actually do?
Tonsils are a collection of lymphoid tissue. They are part of the bodies first line of defense toward foreign pathogens. Humans have several sets of tonsils. There are the palatine tonsils (these are the obvious ones that sit in the back of your throat…and that you can often see when you are sick with something like strep). There are also adenoid (pharyngeal) tonsils, and a lingual tonsil (at the base of your tongue in your throat).
Tonsils may become enlarged….but it maybe isn’t just because you’re sick. The only tonsils that we can typically visualize are the palatine tonsils and we call tell if they are enlarged. But the other tonsils aren’t easily visualized….and you may not know how enlarged they are. But regardless if you can see them or not….they can affect you. Lets talk about reasons why tonsil enlargement might occur.
- Tonsillitis. – Inflammation due to being sick. Tonsillar swelling should subside once you are feeling better. This one is pretty obvious.
- Mouth breathing. Yes, I just listed mouth breathing. Lets think about this one…. If you review the video I posted previously you’ll notice that if you breathe correctly and you are a nose breather your nose is the first filter for foreign pathogens. However, if you are a mouth breather your tonsils end up being your front of the line filter as pathogens enter your mouth. As more foreign pathogens filter through the tonsils they create inflammation of the tissues leading to enlargement of the tonsils. This enlargement can be a chronic issue, unlike tonsillitis from being sick.
- Other things that can cause tonsil enlargement are things like a tonsillar abscess, or cancer (but these are rare).
Lets focus on mouth breathing and chronic enlargement of tonsils. So what if your tonsils are big??? A lot of people don’t think this is such a big deal….but in my opinion they shouldn’t be so sure.
Enlarged tonsils can affect speech making it more difficult to enunciate correctly and my also make speech hyper nasal. But the biggest thing is that enlarged tonsils can lead to is an upper airway obstruction….in other words….difficulty breathing!!
Now, I don’t claim to know everything, but I do know that in order for our human bodies to thrive we need to get oxygen to all of our functioning body parts. So….I’m going to go ahead and make a blanket statement that breathing is pretty darn important.
So, lets really think about this. We often see enlarged tonsils in small children. We also know that tonsil size peaks around age 3 or so. But tell me this….if a 3-year-old has the same size tonsils as an older individual, but a much smaller airway circumferentially….who do you think that enlarged tonsils are going to affect more? So, why is it that physicians are so quick to wait and watch tonsils….assuming that a child will “grow into them”. Hummm….but if that child has an obstructed airway due to the enlarged tonsils?? We have to ask….what is that doing to their growth and development?
A very wise man, and the Godfather to airway (at least to me, and I know many others), Dr. Jeff Rouse once said…“Yes, your child may grow out of enlarged tonsils and adenoids, but are you sure that it is the same kid as the one who [no longer had enlarged tonsils and] breathed better every night for all those years?”
Think about that for a second….if a child is snoring, or mouth breathing, he/she is not breathing properly. If children aren’t breathing properly their little bodies likely aren’t receiving all of the oxygen they could be. What is that doing to their growth? What about their brain development? We will never know…..
Lets be proactive and help the littles that aren’t getting the oxygen they need so that they can grow to their full potential!
And by the way, if you are an adult with enlarged tonsils, you too can have an airway obstruction….and yes, you deserve to breathe too!