In some instances of bad breath white lumps form in the very back of the throat on the tonsils. These are called tonsiloliths, or tonsil stones. Tonsil stones are little stones of accumulated refuse from the sinuses and throat: dead skin cells are always being shed, along with immune cells that patrol your respiratory passages for invading organisms and other foreign objects. You have a constant flow of mucous and saliva past your tonsils, which can be particularly pronounced if you suffer from post nasal drip, or irritated sinuses.

Little accumulations of all this dead material lodge in the tonsillar crypts and can become quite large and hard, often creating a sensation of something being stuck on the back of the throat. Many people notice that they have them, and wonder what they are. If they've noticed that they have bad breath white lumps become a prime suspect for the problem. Tonsiloliths may indeed play a role in halitosis.

Something else that is common in the back of the throat is oral bacteria. The oral cavity contains many different kinds of organisms, some of which have still not been identified. We do know, however, that anaerobic bacteria live on the back of the tongue, where they are protected from oxygen, and break down proteins, including dead skin cells and the other things that accumulate in tonsiloliths. It's no surprise, then, that these bacteria also proliferate in the tonsillar crypts and on tonsil stones when they are present. One more piece of information links bad breath white lumps and anaerobic bacteria.

Anaerobic bacteria smell famously bad - they produce the smell of feces, halitosis, and rotting organic material where there is little air circulation. They do this because they produce malodorous compounds, often called volatile sulfur compounds, when they break down protein molecules. If you know the smell of sulfur (rotten egg), you know how offensive these compounds can be. These compounds are being produced in the tonsiloliths that anaerobic bacteria are living on - bad breath white lumps and anaerobic bacteria are a team.

Tonsiloliths are hard to get rid of: though they eventually dislodge and are swallowed, these bad breath white lumps are sure to recur unless the tonsils are removed. This type of surgery is really not recommended any more, except in exceptional circumstances, so the best remedy is to gargle regularly with a good mouthwash that fights the anaerobes, and try to gently dislodge the larger tonsil stones , if you can.