Tonsillitis- What is it?
Tonsillitis Symptoms
We’ve all experienced tonsillitis symptoms, but what is tonsillitis? It’s is a word I grew up with. Whenever I would go into the doctor’s office with a sore throat, and I often did, the word would inevitably come up. Other words like strep, viral, bacterial, and inflammation would take their turns, but the term always bubbled up. All these tonsillitis symptoms present similarly to these other throat afflictions. Let’s take a moment to figure out exactly what this seemingly catch-all term really means. I’ll also share some tonsillitis pictures. These photos of tonsillitis may or may not look like individuals throats with tonsillitis, but are examples.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery addresses the question of what is tonsillitis quite well:
Tonsillitis refers to inflammation of the pharyngeal tonsils (glands at the back of the throat, visible through the mouth). The inflammation may involve other areas of the back of the throat, including the adenoids and the lingual tonsils (tonsil tissue at the back of the tongue). There are several variations of tonsillitis: acute, recurrent, and chronic tonsillitis, and peritonsillar abscess.
Viral or bacterial infections and immunologic factors lead to tonsillitis symptoms and its complications. Nearly all children in the United States experience at least one episode. Due to improvements in medical and surgical treatments, complications associated with tonsillitis symptoms, including mortality, are very rare.
There you have it. Knowing that you have tonsillitis is like knowing that you have a sore throat. Why you have it is a much more important question than what is tonsillitis? Is it caused by a virus, a bacterial infection, or an allergy? Treatments for each are unique. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. They are of no use in treating allergies or viruses.
Sometimes an affliction called tonsilloths or tonsil stones, is mistaken for tonsillitis. Read more…
Here is a list of most common tonsillitis symptoms:
-Enlarged, tender lymph nodes glands in the neck
-White or yellow patches on the tonsils
-Headache
-Sore throat
-Red and/or swollen tonsils
-Difficult painful swallowing
-Fever
-A scratchy or throaty voice
-Bad breath
-Stiff neck
Here are a few tonsillitis pictures:
The other question, and the one that may underlay the others, is how often does the inflammation occur? In my case, the frequency of tonsillitis symptoms over a period of time helped my doctor, and ultimately me, to make the decision to have a tonsillectomy.
It’s funny- since I don’t have tonsils anymore, I really don’t have tonsillitis symptoms much! What is tonsillitis to a man without tonsils?
