“Understanding and Treating Sore Throat: Insights from Dr. Huang Yuning’s Infectious Encyclopedia”

Have you ever had a sore throat? At first it just felt hot and hot, but later it became painful to swallow, and when it was severe, it was difficult to even eat…. However, not every sore throat will progress to the pain of a knife. Sometimes the throat will rustle for a day or two, and it will be fine after a night of sleep.

The causes of sore throat are also divided into viral infection and bacterial infection. The pain that heals within a day or two is usually a common viral infection. As for the pain that is so painful that you can’t swallow your saliva, it is likely to be enterovirus or type A streptococcus. infection.

The nightmare of the tongue depressor

When many people see a doctor, they are most afraid that the doctor will press the patient’s tongue down with a tongue depressor. They don’t like the disgusting feeling of being induced to vomit. In fact, our doctors don’t really want to do this! But the patient’s fat tongue usually blocks Throat, in the case of unclear vision, it is difficult for the doctor to see the appearance of the throat clearly, so he had to use a tongue depressor to press down the patient’s tongue cruelly. If you don’t like being ravaged by a tongue depressor, you can practice at home in advance, open your mouth in front of a mirror, and consciously tear your throat open to make a thick “ah” sound. At this time, the tongue will naturally fall down, and the doctor does not need to use it Tongue depressor gone.

Pharyngitis, Tonsillitis, Angina

Standing in front of the mirror, with your mouth wide open, holding a flashlight to look at your throat, you can observe structures such as the palate, posterior pharynx, tonsils, and tongue. On both sides of the uvula in the center of the throat, a “McDonald’s-shaped” block is formed. If it looks red, the doctor will say that your throat is inflamed (Pharyngitis); if you see two tonsils that are red or purulent, the doctor will tell you It is said to be tonsillitis (Tonsillitis), if there are blisters and ulcers in the throat, it may be angina (Herpangina) caused by enterovirus.

Through careful observation, there are some characteristic clues, such as “bleeding spots”, “salt grain-shaped white suppurative spots”, “large ivory pus spots”…, which can make the doctor have a certain idea. In the end, to guess the cause behind it. It is not enough to just look at it with the eyes. The so-called doctor must ask about the process and symptoms of the disease, so as to determine whether the throat inflammation is caused by bacterial infection and whether antibiotics are needed.

That’s right, the first decision your doctor needs to make after examining your throat is whether you need antibiotics. Most of the pharyngitis, tonsillitis, angina, etc. caused by viral infections do not need to use antibiotics, and the symptoms can be treated. Only bacterial infections, such as group A streptococcal tonsillitis, should be treated with antibiotics. Now that medicine is more developed, in addition to looking with the eyes and asking with the mouth, there are also quick screening reagents for type A streptococci. Doctors can further use the results of the screening to decide on medication.

What are “anti-inflammatory drugs”?

Since the general cause of sore throat is only a viral infection, the doctor will prescribe “pain reliever and antipyretic drugs”, such as: Anjiare, iprofen, prolactin, etc. The purpose is to relieve the patient’s symptoms, take a good rest, and heal himself . As for pharyngitis and tonsillitis caused by a small number of bacterial infections, the medicines given to patients are “antibiotics”. They have to take a full course of treatment for ten days to kill the bacteria.

This article is excerpted from “Dr. Huang Yuning’s Infectious Encyclopedia”, published by Parent-child World