How to cure acute sore throat

Information on Sore Throat

Sore throat is a certain type of medical condition in whichthe upper respiratory tract gets inflamed. The condition affects four differentregions which include the epiglottis, the tonsils, the larynx and thepharynx. Sore throat is not actually acondition by itself, it is more of a symptom of some other medical condition.In most cases, sore throat is triggered by some sort of viral infection. Othersymptoms which are most commonly involved with sore throat include hoarsenessof the voice, cough, rhinitis, malaise, headache, soreness and sometimes evenfever. Once a person pays a visit to thedoctor because of the symptoms of sore throat, the doctor commonly uses atongue depressor to examine the throat. Sometimes the examination may revealenlarged tender cervical lymph glands, presence of exudates, enlargement of thetonsils, redness of the pharynx and tonsils and several other conditions. If aperson suffers from certain other symptoms such as history of fever, absence ofcough, tender anterior cervical lymph nodes and tonsillar exudate, he or shemay be suffering from sore throat triggered by group A beta hemolyticstreptococcus. Streptococcal infection may be present if a person suffers fromstrawberry tongue, circumolar pallor, flushed face and red punctuate skineruptions. Using a throat swab may be useful in some cases, because they mayindicate excessive erythema, exudation and bacterial infection. If the doctorssuspect that the patient suffers from glandular fever, they usually run fullblood count and glandular fever screening tests. Antistreptolysin O titres arealso used in some cases.

Treatment Options

Since sore throat is not a medical condition on its own, butmore of a symptom of some other underlying medical condition, it is veryimportant to determine its cause before taking any treatment plans or methodsinto consideration. In most mild cases of sore throat, it is a completelynormal thing for it to resolve on its own over the course of only a few days.If a person leaves it to heal on its own, it is highly recommended to getplenty of rest. There are also certaintypes of drugs and medications which can be used to relieve the symptoms andheal the sore throat. Different types of antipyretic analgesics such asibuprofen and paracetamol are the ones which are used the most often. Somecases may involve the use of gargles, over the counter lozenges and certaintypes of antibiotics.