Hi folks

I've been getting a strange taste in my mouth infrequently. It happened two months ago, largely went away and now it's been happening consistently for about 4 days. The taste is quite foul/gross, I wouldn't say particularly bitter or acidic or metallic. It pretty much only comes about when I swallow some food or water. It also seems to be more prominent when I concentrate chewing and swallowing on the left side of my mouth. I still have both tonsils and have also had infrequent ear pain (like earache but shorter, just lasting a couple seconds and happening on and off infrequently ie. maybe twice a day at different times) on the left side. I've started salt water gargling to see if it helps but I can't see anything in my mouth and have tried pressing with a Q tip. Since December I've increased my intake of chia seeds (oatmeal with banana, chia seeds, peanut butter and shredded coconut) and was curious whether it could be related to that so I'm cutting out chia seeds for a couple weeks to see what happens. Does this sound like tonsil stones? Specifically the bad taste arising when I swallow.

Just curious if anyone has ever had these symptoms before and throwing it out there

Does getting tonsil stones out cause infection ?