Pharyngitis: It is an infection of the throat, often caused by bacteria, and can be divided into severe sore throat and persistent sore throat. To prevent pharyngitis, you should eat less spicy food, and quit smoking and drinking. Common symptoms of pharyngitis include throat discomfort, voice changes, coughing, painful swallowing, and frequent throat clearing.
Symptom 1: Pharyngitis – Throat Discomfort
Pharyngitis: It causes swelling and soreness in the throat. These symptoms include a feeling that something is stuck in the throat, along with burning, dryness, and sometimes a dull pain. This discomfort often gets worse after talking or singing a lot. Resting usually helps ease or get rid of these symptoms.
Symptom 2: Laryngitis – Voice Changes
Laryngitis: It is swelling and redness of the voice box, or larynx. It can start with raspy or scratchy voice and even you might complete loss of voice. The patient feels that their speech is lighter and weaker, the tone becomes lower and dull that’s hard to maintain. These symptoms are alleviated or disappear after abstinence, but reappear after resuming the use of the voice, sometimes better, sometimes worse, repeatedly, and the course of the disease is long, making the patient feel distressed about speaking. Hoarseness is the main symptom. The voice becomes low and rough. The symptoms are more severe in the morning. Later, with increased activity and coughing up throat secretions, it gradually improves, and then worsens the next morning. The hoarseness is alleviated after abstinence, and talking more makes the symptoms worse. It is intermittent and evolves into a persistent state over time.
Symptom 3: Tonsillitis – Coughing and Clearing the Throat
Tonsillitis is swelling and redness of the tonsils, the soft tissue in the back of the mouth. Before speaking or singing, there is often a sound of clearing the throat to cough out the secretions in the throat. The secretions in the throat increase, and it is often felt that there is phlegm sticking. Whenever speaking, you have to cough to clear the sticky phlegm. This situation is often caused by excessive shouting. Not much secretion can be coughed out, and this dry cough becomes a habit. Long-term nasal congestion, runny nose, mouth breathing, and inflammatory secretions irritating the laryngeal mucosa can easily cause vocal cord edema and congestion. Over time, it can cause vocal cord hypertrophy or vocal cord nodules, and even develop into polyps, resulting in hoarseness.
Differences in Symptoms of Pharyngitis
Pharyngitis is a common disease of the pharynx, which is an inflammation of the pharyngeal mucosa and its lymphoid tissue. Acute pharyngitis is often a part of an upper respiratory tract infection, mostly caused by viral infection. The lesions can manifest as acute simple pharyngitis and acute suppurative pharyngitis. Repeated attacks of acute pharyngitis can turn into chronic pharyngitis. Long-term excessive smoking and drinking or stimulation by harmful gases can also cause chronic pharyngitis. Chronic pharyngitis can be divided into: chronic simple pharyngitis, chronic hypertrophic pharyngitis, and chronic atrophic pharyngitis.
Pharyngitis vs. Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the laryngeal mucosa and submucosal tissues. Clinically, it is characterized by severe coughing, swelling, fever, and pain in the throat. According to the cause and clinical course, it can be divided into primary and secondary, acute and chronic. Clinically, acute catarrhal laryngitis is the most common, and it is often complicated with pharyngitis.
The mouth and throat are two different parts. The pharynx is composed of three parts, one is the oropharynx: when you open your mouth, you can see the soft palate, uvula, tongue, and tonsils on both sides. The cavity between the uvula and the tongue, including the tonsils (its posterior wall is called the posterior pharyngeal wall), is called the oropharynx; the cavity from the uvula to the back end of the nasal cavity is called the nasopharynx; the cavity from the root of the tongue to the upper edge of the epiglottis is the laryngopharynx; and below the laryngopharynx is the larynx. The pharynx and larynx are both parts of the upper respiratory tract.
When caring for pharyngitis, you should pay attention to preventing colds and eat a light diet; when caring for laryngitis, you should pay attention to resting the vocal cords.
Causes and Manifestations of Pharyngitis
Viral Infections
Viral infections are transmitted through droplets and close contact. Coxsackievirus, adenovirus, and parainfluenza virus are the most common causes, and the pain is more severe. Followed by rhinovirus, influenza virus, etc.
Bacterial Infections
Bacterial infections are mainly caused by streptococci, staphylococci, and pneumococci. Group A streptococci are the most serious. Bacteria or toxins enter the blood, or even purulent lesions occur in distant organs, which is called acute septic pharyngitis.
Physical and Chemical Factors
Physical and chemical factors such as high temperature, dust, smoke, irritating gases, etc.
The onset is relatively acute, with dryness and burning in the throat at the beginning. Then there is pain, and the pain in the throat is often more obvious when swallowing saliva than when eating. The systemic symptoms are generally mild, but the degree varies due to age, immunity, and the virulence of viruses and bacteria.
There may be fever, headache, loss of appetite, and soreness in the limbs. If it is septic pharyngitis, the systemic and local symptoms are more serious. If the inflammation invades the throat, there will be coughing and hoarseness.
The oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal mucosa are acutely congested, the palatine arch and uvula are edematous, and the lymph follicles and lateral pharyngeal cords on the posterior pharyngeal wall are also red and swollen. In bacterial infections, yellow-white dot-like exudates occasionally appear in the center of the lymph follicles. The submandibular lymph nodes are enlarged and tender. In severe cases, the epiglottis and aryepiglottic folds may be involved, and edema may occur.
Based on the medical history, symptoms, and signs, the diagnosis of this disease is not difficult. In order to clarify the pathogenic factors, throat culture and antibody testing can be performed. The prodromal period of some acute infectious diseases (such as measles, scarlet fever, influenza, and whooping cough, etc.) often has symptoms similar to acute pharyngitis, and attention should be paid to differentiation to avoid misdiagnosis. In addition, if pseudomembranous necrosis occurs in the oral cavity, pharynx, and tonsils, a blood test should be performed to rule out blood diseases.
Mild cases have mild systemic symptoms, including low fever, body aches, and fatigue; local dryness, itchy throat and dry cough, mild pain when swallowing empty or a sense of obstruction in the empty throat. Severe cases often have chills, high fever, and headaches. Children may have symptoms such as convulsions, seizures, and systemic poisoning due to high fever. Local pain is more severe, often with radiation to the ears, and pain in swallowing makes swallowing more difficult, and children may refuse to feed or eat because of this.
Throat Discomfort and Coughing
The throat will feel very uncomfortable and coughing will occur frequently.
Self-Treatment and Precautions for Pharyngitis
1. Self-Treatment with Patent Medicine
- Here you find both traditional remedies and home treatments listed below which may vary based on the individual and the severity of the condition.
- Kangyanling Tablets: Take 4 tablets each time, 3 times a day.
- Liuwei Dihuang Pills: 9g each time, 3 times a day. Suitable for patients in the chronic stage with insufficient lung and kidney yin fluid.
- Qingyin Pills: 3-6g each time, twice a day.
- Golden Fruit Drink: 1 tablespoon each time, 3 times a day. Effective for chronic pharyngitis.
- Fengyoujing Drops: Take 2-4 drops orally and swallow slowly without water, 5 times a day.
- Houfengsan Spray: Apply to the throat as needed to treat acute and chronic pharyngitis.
- Watermelon Rind Tea: Boil 250g of watermelon rind with water until one bowl of liquid remains. Add rock sugar and drink after cooling.
2. Traditional Home Remedies
- Tongue Root Exercise: Rotate the tongue tip against the teeth 18 times clockwise and counterclockwise. Swallow saliva produced three times. Practice morning and evening.
- Garlic Therapy: Hold raw garlic in your mouth, starting without biting it. Once accustomed, bite while holding it in your mouth. This helps with throat discomfort and hoarseness.
- Massage Therapy: Apply essential oil and massage the throat in a clockwise direction 20-30 times every morning and evening for 2-3 months.
3. Dietary Self-Therapy
- Fresh Loofah Juice: Cut and mash 4 loofahs, remove the residue, and drink the juice.
- Peanut Decoction: Peel and stew peanuts in boiling water to treat hoarseness and loss of voice.
- White Radish and Guava Tea: Boil together, add sugar, and drink twice a day.
- Kelp Strips: Boil and marinate kelp with sugar, consume 50g twice daily for chronic pharyngitis.
- Lily Bulbs and Mung Beans: Cook together with sugar for consumption.
- Roasted Red Dates: Roast 5 red dates and drink with sugar water.
- Melon Peel Drink: Boil 250g of melon peel, add rock sugar, and drink it cold to treat pharyngitis.
- Walnuts: Consume 10 walnuts without the hard shells twice a day for 15 days.
4. External Treatment and Self-Therapy
- Salt Powder: Fry and grind salt, blow it into the throat, and spit out the saliva.
- Vinegar Rinse: Rinse your mouth with a mixture of vinegar and water several times a day.
- Watermelon Frost: Blow a small amount into the throat 3 times a day.
- Xilei Powder: Blow a small amount into the throat, avoid talking for 5 minutes, 3 times a day.
5. Self-Treatment Precautions
- Rest Your Voice: Minimize speaking, avoid whispering, and refrain from loud or prolonged speech.
- Stay Hydrated: Drink 8-10 glasses of warm water daily.
- Breathe Through Your Nose: Helps keep the throat moist.
- Use a Cold Air Humidifier: Maintains moisture in the throat’s mucous membranes.
- Avoid Spicy Foods: Spicy and greasy foods can worsen symptoms.
Conclusion
- Pharyngitis or sore throat can seriously affect your daily life whether acute or chronic. From throat discomfort to an ongoing scratchy voice, these symptoms are not just annoying but can also make you restless if left untreated. While there are many remedies available, from traditional medicines to home treatments, it’s an important to choose which suits your specific needs and the severity of your condition. Don’t hesitate to consult with your doctor if symptoms remain or get worse. Your throat health is important, and taking the right steps as early as you can to get well soon.
