Acute Tonsillitis

Symptoms, Treatments and Home Remedies

Acute tonsillitis is one of the most painful of all the bacterial throat inflammations. The article tells you what you need to know about this acute inflammation. You can get this infection for a number of reasons. It can be simple cold and flu or bacteria such as: streptococcus attacking your tonsils. The severities of the symptoms differ because of its cause and; hence are treated differently. The typical symptoms of an acute tonsillitis are: high temperature; as high as 102 F, fatigue, sore throat accompanied by difficulty in swallowing, foul breath due to infection, enlarged glands in neck which hurt. The worse symptoms last for 3-5 days and then gradually subside. Some of the signs to watch out for and which help in identifying this particular type of tonsillitis are that the patient may look flushed, his lips and tongue get dry, tonsils are covered by white spots, tonsils are enlarged and patient may have difficulty in breathing as the air’s passage way is blocked. Upon seeing this, doctor may test for presence of bacteria.

Although some believe, that the treatment for acute tonsillitis should be purely medical; there are a few home remedies too which help. Toasted bread; toasted with a bit of oil, salt and cayenne pepper is quite effective as it helps in killing the bacterial deposits on your tonsils. Next is bulbs of onion and garlic roasted dry and then crushed are amazing as they are rich in nutrients and have anti bacterial powers. Fresh lime squeezed in warm water and then sipped slowly also helps. The vitamin C in lemon juice preys on the bacteria and when sipped warmly is quite soothing for the aching throat.

The doctors prescribe antibiotics in case of a bacterial infection which takes care of the bacteria along with mild analgesics and lozenges to relieve the pain. Rest and ensuring you take plenty of liquids is a must. It is important to understand that these medicines are most effective if the treatment begins at the initial stage of the disease. If the treatment is delayed, sometimes a patient may have to take repeated doses of antibiotics in order to combat the bacteria completely. But in such cases heavy doses of antibiotics are required as the human body tends to develop antibiotic resistance. Gargling with hot, saline water also helps a lot as it attacks the deposits in tonsil crypts. If any patient gets repeated episodes of tonsillitis; 3 – 4 times in a year, the doctors may suggest tonsillectomy. It is removing of the tonsils surgically. The procedure is carried out 4 to 5 weeks after an episode of acute tonsillitis settles down. The doctors wait for the inflammation to go away.

Tonsillectomy is considered as the very last option. However, the procedure is being done much lesser nowadays; as compared to the past. This is because people are more aware now and know better the role tonsils play in our immune system. Second reason is that; after years of practice it has been proven that natural remedies for tackling acute tonsillitis are as more effective then the medical treatments, which people heavily relied on in the past.

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