it is more common during the cold season of the year, cold, tonsillitis, sinusitis, whooping cough, pharyngitis, viral infections and even myocardial infarction can cause sore throat.
Any substance that irritates the throat and oral mucosa can cause a sore throat. These include: viral and bacterial infections, allergic reactions, dust, cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes, hot drinks or food, tooth or gum infections can sometimes affect the throat, chronic cough, extremely dry conditions, gastroesophageal reflux and loud speech can also irritate the throat, hoarseness is a common concomitant symptom.
Common diseases that present with the symptoms of sore throat are: systemic viral infection, mumps, pharyngitis or tonsillitis, cold, pharyngitis.
Different causes of sore throat can cause different symptoms, such as:
- Nasopharyngeal inflammation
In the acute inflammation of the nasopharynx, patients will have a dry and painful feeling, and the dilation of blood vessels in the inflammatory period will cause patients to breathe mucus back and spit out slightly bloody.
- Oropharyngeal inflammation
Oropharyngeal inflammation symptoms are mostly acute tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis, both of which are mostly related to colds. When the tonsil is acutely inflamed, the patient feels sore throat, accompanied by moderate fever or high fever, and the tonsil will be swollen and purulent in severe cases.
- Laryngeal inflammation
The laryngeal inflammation is mostly acute epiglottitis and acute laryngitis. Acute epiglottitis is one of the common acute critical diseases in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery. Patients feel pharyngeal pain, even dare not swallow food, and have watery sounds when speaking. At the same time, the pharynx is blocked, which can seriously lead to breathing difficulties and threaten life.
When patients encounter this situation, they must go to the ENT emergency department of the hospital as soon as possible. Patients with acute laryngitis also have sore throat and foreign body sensation in the pharynx, but there is an obvious difference with acute epiglotitis, the patient's voice is hoarse, not watery voice.
- Non-inflammatory diseases
The causes of sore throats are many and complex, and not all are caused by inflammation. Such as glossopharyngeal nerve pain, external stimulation, oral ulcers will cause pharyngeal pain.
(1) The pain caused by glossopharyngeal nerve pain is mostly side pain, and the pain is more dramatic, there is no certain reason, after the use of anti-inflammatory drugs symptoms did not improve significantly, at this time, doctors recommend the use of painkillers to treat trigeminal neuralgia to eliminate pain.
(2) Pain caused by too long styloid process pain on the side of the pharynx, the pain is more obvious when swallowing, and unlike glossopharyngeal nerve pain, this pain will radiate up and down the same side of the pharynx. Patients need to go to the hospital as soon as possible to confirm the diagnosis.
(3) Oral ulcers due to vitamin deficiency and other reasons caused by oral ulcers are mostly self-healing diseases, will heal within 7 to 10 days, in the process of onset, will cause persistent pain in the pharynx. Some malignant and persistent oral ulcers require active treatment.
- External stimuli
Some external stimuli can also cause pharyngeal pain, such as eating too much melon seeds to stimulate the throat, causing lymphatic tissue non-inflammatory pain, drink more water or take a point of fire will be better.
- Other
(1) Tumors such as tonsil masses, laryngeal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, etc., do not have obvious pain in the early stage, and patients often have developed to middle and late stages when they feel pain and seek medical treatment.
Therefore, these throat diseases without pain need to be paid more attention to, once the feeling of unknown causes of foreign body sensation in the pharynx, blood in the nose, numbness in the face, poor activity below the ear and other symptoms, to seek medical examination as soon as possible.
(2) Myocardial infarction throat pain, if no clear cause can be found, and accompanied by chest tightness, sweating or nausea symptoms, to be alert to the occurrence of myocardial infarction. This is because the nerves of the throat and the heart are innervated by the spinal nerve of the same segment, when the myocardial ischemia and hypoxia, the acidic substances such as lactic acid, pyruvate, phosphoric acid and peptide substances produced will stimulate the nerves to produce pain, and spread to the vagus nerve of the pharynx, causing throat pain symptoms.
Therefore, the elderly with high blood pressure and coronary heart disease should be careful when they have sore throat, it is best to rest in bed, avoid excessive mental tension, subelingual nitroglycerin, and seek medical attention immediately.
