Tonsillectomy Scabs- How and when do they fall off?
Regardless of the tonsillectomy method used, some sort of scab is going to form over the the area from which your tonsils have been cut, coblated, and/or cauterized.
It’s normal. It is normal. People often become obsessed with the appearance of the tonsil beds as they recover from tonsillectomy. Almost like a recently lost tooth, it can be hard to resist the temptation to explore the new landscape. This too is normal. I strongly advise against molesting the area with foreign objects. Those scabs will fall off on their own. Touching, poking, or scraping on them increases the risk of hemorrhage and you don’t want that.
Many Otoraryngologists, or ear, nose and throat, (ENT) specialists recommend eating a somewhat rough diet, (think dry toast), to keep the affected area clear of excessive tonsillectomy scab build-up. This advice is most often given in the United Kingdom and Australia. Most ENT’s in the United States advise a soft diet.
Which ever route you take, there will likely be formation of tissue that covers the tonsil beds. I recommend following the advice I give in other pages of this site; keep the throat moist, avoid sharp foods, stay hydrated, take pain medications on schedule, sleep upright if possible, and leave those tonsillectomy scabs alone. They will normally begin to slough of at about day seven or eight of your recovery.
What Happens When Tonsillectomy Scabs Fall Off
You may feel a sharp pain occasionally as the tonsillectomy scabs fall off. This is common. This is normal. There is a slight increase in risk of bleeding while tonsillectomy scabs fall off. If you do have some bleeding, try gargling with ice cold water. This will usually stop the bleeding. If this doesn’t work, and bleeding becomes profuse, call 911 or get to a hospital immediately. Don’t panic. In there relatively rare cases, health care professionals have great success at stopping the bleed.
Daily Photos of Throat After Tonsillectomy. Caution: Scabs
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Hi, I am 45 years old and had a tonsillectomy seven days ago. This has been a much better experience than what I was expecting; however I did experience some pain and discomfort. My left side had no pain after day two, but my right ear was in continuous pain until day seven. The liquid pain meds, Hydrocordo/acetaminophen, tasted awful and burned my throat going down the first couple of days. The scab on my right side broke on day seven (today) and I am now pain free! My diet has consisted of jello, applesauce, sherbet, and Popsicles. I tried mashed potatoes and soup but they both made my stomach upset. I will continue on a soft diet for the next week while I’m waiting for my left scab to break.
Hi vericonica, im violet im 44 n i just had tonsillectomy 4 days ago. My recovery was not so nice as i was still quite sedated after coming out n the nausea got the best of me for 5 hrs. Everytime i woke up to sit up i felt like i was gana be sick it was so horrible but the gave me anti nausea drugs in the end i came right after that. Could only eat ice cream dat night. Woke up every few hours thursday morning, had porridge, bread, apricots n coffee for brekkie. They let me come home. Am now resting up n just going thru what everybody else is, im on paracetamol, ibruprofen tylenol, throat spray but i feel like something is missing.
I am 18 and I am day 8 of my recovery. I have never been in this much agony in my life. Days 1-4 were ok, I was able to munch on ice pops and rice pudding and soft potato rolls. I was prescribed Tylenol with codeine for after my surgery, but on day 5 I woke up vomiting terribly. I felt my scabs touch the very back of my tongue each time I heaved. That was hell. For the rest of the day I had nothing but a Popsicle. I stopped taking the codeine but normal tylenol does nothing to help my pain. I have pain in my throat as well as my teeth and ears. I also have a lymph node lump under my arm from surgery. I am full of mucous and I spit up phlegm every minute and that is not an exaggeration. I pulled a muscle in my stomach from how often I spit up. I am having diarrhea from the immense amount of pain and stress I am in. I am allowed to have Motrin once a day because it is a blood thinner and that is my only slight relief from the pain. The most I’ve slept in the past 4 days was 45 minutes. Every time I wake up I have a dry throat and excruciating pain. It’s almost not worth sleeping at all. Because of the lack of sleep and immense pain I have been going insane. I rock back and forth for hours. I hit and punch things and hear things that aren’t there. If someone came into my room with a gun I would beg them to shoot me. The stage I am currently in is the scabs are starting to come off. This hurts more than any of the throat pain I’ve had in the past 7 days. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have this surgery. The infected giant tonsils and getting sick constantly sucked, but not to a point that I was thinking about death like I am now.
Hi Danielle. I’m 19 and I’m on my 7th day of recovery. I have had the worst experience with my tonsillectomy. The 2nd day I was puking. I spit up very thick saliva/mucus every minute. My ear pain is so bad. I’m constantly taking hot showers or putting a heating pad over my ears. I think it feels good. I can sleep, but not for very long. About and hour or so at a time. I wake up and my throat hurts worse. I have lost 10 pounds since surgery. It hurts terribly bad just to try to swallow water. I’ve had only Popsicles to eat, but not recently because of my ear pain. I don’t know what my scabs look like because I can’t get my mouth open. It hurts too bad to try to put my tongue down. This is the worst pain I have ever been in. I’m miserable. I wish I would have never got them taken out. I’ve had thoughts that I’d rather be dead too. Hopefully you’re okay now & hopefully it won’t take me long to recover. Thanks for sharing.
Have you tried ear drops? My ear pain was causing unbearable headaches so I bought some ear drops and have finally been able to get relief.
Its my 4 day since i had my tonsils out n im starting to get sore ears. I hv an infection in my left ear im just using a hottty for now it seems to help
Hi! I’m 25 years old and I am on day 5 of my recovery on day 4 I developed thrush and was given a liquid ” swish and swallow” to do 4 times a day for 10 days. I stopped taking the pin medication on the 3rd day it was making me sick and I even threw up the anxiety that gave me was enough for me to push through the pain without any medicine. For the first 3 days I ate chicken broth with small bits of bread soaked in the broth and sherbet. Starting on the 4th day and today I was able to eat some cereal and small bits of chicken nuggets. I’m not in a tremendous amount of pain and aside from not being able to talk properly ( due to an insane amount of swelling) recovery isn’t as bad as I expected but I also didn’t expect to barely be able to open my mouth let alone speak. I think the scabs are slowly starting to come off but it’s such a disaster in my mouth I honestly have no idea!
I am about a week after my tonsillectomy and I’m still not eating solid food, but I’m keeping hydrated with lots of water and a humidifier. As soon as I woke up after the surgery I felt fine, pretty great actually. The next day I was having trouble breathing and was unable to swallow due to my uvula being so swollen it was impeding my breathing and swallowing. My mom took me to the ER because she was afraid that I hadn’t drank anything all day or night. They gave me an IV and a shot of steroids in the butt for the dehydration and to stop the swelling. Overall not too bad. The following two days I tried to take the steroids and pain meds but I would frequently get them caught in throat and end up choking on them, so I stopped using them. Milk and ice cream cause too much mucus for me to handle but overall the pain isn’t terrible but all I’d really like in life right now is to eat a giant cheesy pizza from literally anywhere at all.
I got my tonsils and adenoids out Wednesday with today being my 5th day. I went to the hospital terrified thinking of how awful the recovery will be but honestly its not as bad as I imagined. After the surgery I woke up in the recovery room crying in pain so the nurse gave me the strongest pain meds and an ice cold water. I fell back asleep after finishing my water and when I woke back up had another cup. The same thing happened again and the nurse kept asking if I wanted anything to eat but I was not hungry at all. Two hours after the surgery my mom and I left the hospital. My medicine made me very tired so I kept falling asleep and waking up with a dry mouth. I also had a nose surgery the same day so my nose is plugged and I have to breathe out my mouth causing it to get very dry. Throughout the night my mom woke me up for my pain meds and by the second day the pain was a little worse. All day long I would eat ice which helped a lot and I didn’t like being without it. I had to take these pills later on that my mom mashed up and tried mixing it with chicken broth. It was the nastiest thing ever and I wouldn’t swallow it so my mom tried mixing it in a milkshake but that wasn’t any better. Lucky for me the doctor said I didn’t have to take them. To get the gross taste out of my mouth I tried eating jello but after one bite I threw up. I haven’t had jello since. Moving on to my third day i wasn’t sleeping as much and the doctor told me every hour I had to walk around my house so I wouldn’t get blood clots. My mom bought watermelon to see if that was easy to eat and if you cut it into little pieces it really is good. My fourth day, or yesterday, I went to my dad’s house. I was talking a little more but not as much as I was today. He got me a smoothie from Dunkin Donuts but it was too thick and hard to swallow so I didn’t have a lot of that. Then he grinded up ice for me which was was really good. It tasted like snow pretty much, but not bad to eat. Then my sister bought me some mashed potatoes and I have never been more in love. That was the best thing I have ate since the surgery and I highly recommend buying it. Today the pain wasn’t too bad just when I woke up it was. I had some yogurt for breakfast which tasted really good but it was rich causing it to be hard to swallow. Then my sister bought me some ice cream which I had a few bites of but that as well was really hard to swallow because it was rich. Then later on I had some mac and cheese which I took little bites of but I managed to eat it all and it was pretty good. The best advice I can give is too take your pain medicine and don’t buy rich foods even if they are soft and seem easy to eat. A lot of people have been telling me to buy ice cream but it is just too difficult to eat. Mashed potatoes were defiantly my favorite and the watermelon was very good too. Also eating ice helps a lot and make sure to have ice cold water to stay hydrated.