How to deal with chronic tonsillitis?

Symptoms of tonsil disease

A whitish coating on the throat is accompanied by a “broken” body, poor health, drowsiness and a temperature of more than 37 degrees

The tonsils are an organ of the immune system. Frequent diseases of this organ are due to its location. Tonsils are vulnerable to bacteria that accumulate in the mouth or enter the body when inhaling polluted air.

The main disease of the tonsils is tonsillitis. It can be acute or chronic. Symptoms of acute tonsillitis (tonsillitis):

• acute pain in the throat when swallowing;
• redness and swelling of the tonsils;
• increased body temperature;
• light plaque on the tonsils;
• general malaise and symptoms of intoxication.

Children of preschool age most often experience sore throat. This is explained by the fact that their tonsils are larger than those of adults and are therefore more susceptible to bacterial diseases.

Acute sore throat requires proper treatment. Antibacterial drugs and antiseptics are used in therapy. If treatment is carried out incorrectly, the disease becomes chronic. Symptoms of chronic tonsillitis:

• white plugs on the tonsils;
• enlargement and looseness of the tonsils;
• redness of the throat;
• dryness and discomfort;
• light plaque on the tonsils;
• bad breath;
• general malaise;
• exacerbations of the disease (more than 4 times a year).

Acute sore throat is always accompanied by an increase in body temperature to 38 degrees. With chronic inflammation of the tonsils, this symptom is not observed. However, due to the presence of a source of infection, the body is greatly weakened, so the patient always feels unwell - loss of strength, asthenia, fatigue, decreased performance.

Acute tonsillitis most often worries children, but chronic tonsillitis is a disease of adults.

Disruption of the tonsils negatively affects the condition of the entire body. The fact is that immune cells mature in this organ. With chronic tonsillitis, the immune system is always weakened, so the slightest draft or stress can cause an exacerbation of the disease.

Thus, the tonsils must be treated in a timely manner and the disease not progressed, otherwise complications will have to be dealt with for a very long time.

Drug treatment of tonsils at home

To treat tonsils at home, both medications and folk remedies are used. Doctors do not recommend self-medication, since acute sore throat requires antibiotics that cannot be selected on your own. Treatment without antibiotics is not always effective and can lead to the disease becoming chronic.

You can independently use various gargling solutions and tablets for sore throat.

Otolaryngologists warn: if symptoms have not decreased 3 days after starting home treatment, you should definitely go to the clinic.

In the case of chronic tonsillitis, doctors are not so categorical. Home treatment is allowed; it is not necessary to use antibiotics, but this does not mean that one can be negligent in one’s health. Professional therapy for chronic tonsillitis is more effective, but some methods of treating tonsils at home help improve overall well-being and reduce the frequency of exacerbations.

Gargling

Before rinsing, the product must be diluted with water.

Rinsing is the basis of therapy for chronic and acute tonsillitis. For treatment, special solutions with antiseptic properties are used. Moreover, these are not always potent drugs, because soda and salt are also antiseptics. Doctors also do not prohibit the use of such simple means.

The purpose of rinsing is to wash away plaque from the tonsils. The fact is that the palatine tonsils have small depressions or depressions called lacunae. Pathogenic microbes penetrate into these cavities, resulting in plaque or even plugs in the gaps. The use of antiseptic solutions helps get rid of plaque and prevent further proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms.

The following products can be used to gargle.

1. Sea salt. Rich in iodine and other trace elements, it has an antiseptic effect. To prepare the solution, dissolve 1 teaspoon of the product in warm water. It is recommended to gargle 3-4 times a day.
2. Soda. It effectively copes with fungal infections of the oral mucosa and tonsils, but with a bacterial infection it is noticeably inferior to salt. If you don’t have anything at hand, soda will also benefit your health. The rinse solution is prepared from one teaspoon of the product dissolved in a glass of water.
3. Iodine. Iodine solution has a powerful antiseptic effect, but it must be used carefully. To prepare the medicine, you need to add only 5 drops of iodine to a glass of water. Contraindication – intolerance to this substance and pathology of the thyroid gland.
4. Furacilin. This simple antibiotic will help relieve inflammation of the tonsils at home; moreover, it is actively used for treatment in the hospital. To prepare the solution, you need to take one tablet, grind it into powder and dissolve in a glass of water.
5. Chlorophyllipt. The most popular pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of sore throat. It is affordable and available without a prescription. To prepare a gargle, mix 1 part of the drug with 5 parts of water.
6. Lugol's solution. Essentially, it is the same iodine, but with the addition of potassium. It is used to lubricate the tonsils, but you can also prepare a solution for rinsing - 5 drops per glass of water.

Rinsing the tonsils is a treatment that allows you to relieve inflammation at home. The listed solutions refer to first aid products that can be used to relieve acute symptoms before visiting a doctor.

Lozenges

For inflammation of the tonsils, treatment at home is supplemented with special lozenges. They necessarily contain an antiseptic and an anesthetic component.

Important! Throat lozenges do not cure tonsillitis, but they are effective in relieving acute symptoms.

You can buy tablets for sore throat at any pharmacy. The most popular drugs:

• Septefril is the cheapest antiseptic for sore throat;
• Strepsils is a well-known product with a wide variety of different flavors;
• Faringosept - lollipops with a pleasant taste and powerful antiseptic effect;
• Angi Sept - lozenges with menthol and mint oil, act very quickly.

The tablets are suitable for treating tonsils in adults at home. They are prescribed to children with caution, as they have age restrictions for use.

Lozenges should be taken 3-4 times a day, preferably after meals. Within 1-2 hours after resorption of the tablet, you should abstain from food, as the drug creates a thin antiseptic film on the tonsils.

Spray for the throat

Use no more than four times a day

Children and adults are treated with tonsils at home using a spray. The drug in this form is sprayed onto the inflamed tonsils; this treatment allows you to quickly eliminate a sore throat at home. In general, sprays have the same composition as tablets, but do not require resorption.

The most popular means:

• Givalex;
• Angilex;
• Hepilor;
• Inhalipt.

The disadvantage of sprays is that they tingle and irritate the throat when sprayed. Lozenges do not cause such discomfort.

Inhalations

Treatment of tonsillitis at home can be supplemented with inhalations. The essence of the method is inhaling warm air with essential oils, which soothes inflamed tonsils and reduces sore throat. For inhalation use:

• green tea essential oil;
• pine or cypress oil;
• drug Pinosol;
• balm Zvezdochka.

Essential oils are added to a container of hot water or to an inhaler, 2-3 drops per liter. The drugs are used according to the instructions.

The disadvantage of inhalation is the presence of contraindications. This procedure is contraindicated at high temperatures and acute infectious processes in the body. Inhalations can be done for chronic tonsillitis.

Washing lacunae

The following treatment method is practiced for chronic tonsillitis and the presence of purulent plugs in the tonsils. Rinsing is carried out using a syringe with a special curved nozzle, or an irrigator.

It is necessary to prepare a solution of furatsilin and Lugol's solution. Open your mouth wide, place the tip of the syringe opposite the recesses in the tonsils and direct a stream of antiseptic solution into the gaps. Repeat the procedure 3-4 times, then rinse your mouth with an antiseptic and lubricate your tonsils with Lugol's solution. This procedure must be carried out twice a day.

What can't you do?

Mustard plasters should not be applied to sick tonsils.

Inflammation of the tonsils should be treated at home carefully. In case of acute inflammation it is prohibited:

• do warm-ups;
• rub your throat with vodka;
• make compresses;
• use mustard plasters.

All these methods can aggravate the course of the disease and provoke the spread of infection throughout the body, which is fraught with life-threatening complications.

It is also forbidden to try to clean off plaque with your fingers or squeeze out purulent plugs in the tonsils. All this is fraught with the development of extensive inflammation due to injury to the tonsil tissue.

Sore throat: how to quickly cure a sore throat, tonsils, tonsillitis

In this article we will talk about how to treat a sore throat in adults and children with sore throat, chronic tonsillitis, and inflamed tonsils at home. You will learn why you don’t always need to take antibiotics for a sore throat. And what are the risks of removing tonsils (tonsil removal).

So. It is believed that throat diseases - chronic tonsillitis, inflammation of the tonsils, frequently recurring sore throats - are quite difficult to cure. And doctors often treat these diseases without thinking much about the consequences of treatment for the patient’s health.

For example, many doctors for a sore throat, and indeed for any throat disease, constantly prescribe their patients to take antibiotics . However, antibiotics when taken frequently or for a long time can reduce immunity. In addition, a sore throat can be caused not by bacteria, but by viruses - and antibiotics do not work against them!

If the case is chronic, doctors in most cases recommend solving the problem radically - by removing the tonsils . They removed the tonsils - and that’s it, there seemed to be no problems.

But the tonsils - tonsils - are our frontier, they are the gates, the body’s protection from the penetration of any infection into the body. In addition, they produce immune cells!

The tonsils hold the first line of defense against various microorganisms that enter our body with inhaled air. And if you remove your tonsils, your chances of contracting one or another airborne infection increase.

In addition, after such an operation you can get serious heart problems or kidney inflammation. And after removal of the tonsils, allergic diseases can begin! That is, surgery to remove tonsils can serve as a trigger for the development of a number of other diseases!

Therefore, it is necessary to remove tonsils - tonsils - only as a last resort! I emphasize! - only in the most extreme case!, when no other methods have helped, and the inflammation of the tonsils is very severe.

Instead of all this - instead of using antibiotics, instead of removing tonsils - let's try to cure the throat in simple, effective and practically harmless ways. Moreover, we will try to cure your throat in just a few days!

Use one of the methods:

Iodinol

You can use a very cheap and effective, but partly forgotten remedy called Iodinol - blue iodine. You need to buy a 1% solution of iodinol at the pharmacy.

How to use iodinol to effectively treat a throat:

IMPORTANT! Before you start using iodinol, there is one thing to consider. A small number of people are severely allergic to iodine (and therefore to iodinol). Therefore, before the first use, moisten a cotton wool with undiluted iodinol, and with this cotton wool apply iodinol to the skin in the elbow area (this is the place where blood is usually taken from a vein). If any strong reaction occurs in this area after applying iodinol - itching, redness of the skin, skin rashes - then you should not use iodinol to gargle.

If no unexpected reactions occur, you can start gargling with a solution of iodinol.

First you need to dilute it with water. The problem, however, is that almost none of the manufacturers write about how to properly dilute iodinol to treat a throat. Therefore, the same recommendation, copied from each other, is circulating on the Internet - dilute 1 tablespoon of iodinol in a glass of water, and gargle with the resulting solution 3-4 times a day.

This is true for children over 5 years old. But for adults the recommendation is slightly different:

For the first time (during the first rinse), you can actually do just this: dilute 1 tablespoon of iodinol in a glass of water, and gargle with the resulting solution. If you tolerated the first procedure well, then with the following rinses the concentration of the solution can be increased:

You need to take a glass of lukewarm water and dilute 2 tablespoons of iodinol in it. You need to gargle with the resulting solution 3-4 times a day. After gargling, it is advisable not to drink or eat for 15 minutes.

This treatment in most cases helps cure a sore throat in 3-4 days. Chronic tonsillitis usually heals in one to two weeks.

Side effects of iodinol:

IMPORTANT! It must be borne in mind that in rare cases, when using iodinol, a person may experience adverse reactions, for example: runny nose, salivation, lacrimation, urticaria, allergic skin reactions, rapid pulse, nervousness, sleep disturbances, increased sweating, loose stools. In all these cases, the use of iodinol must be stopped immediately!

Quincke's edema occurs very rarely; this will require the help of doctors. However, all this mainly happens when iodinol is used incorrectly, and to avoid this, you simply need to use iodinol correctly - see above.

Contraindications:

IMPORTANT! Iodinol should not be used for more than 2 weeks in a row. Iodinol is contraindicated in cases of hypersensitivity to iodine, thyrotoxicosis, increased thyroid function and autoimmune thyroiditis. Iodinol should not be used to treat pregnant or breastfeeding women.

The story with children under 5 years old is not entirely clear. Some manufacturers of this medicine write that iodinol should not be used to treat children under 5 years of age. Others write that young children can gargle or lubricate their throats with iodine.

However, let's use another method to treat children under 5 years of age: if the child already knows how to gargle, then chlorhexidine solution can be successfully used for gargling.

Adults can also gargle with this product. Provided, of course, that you (or your child) are not allergic to it.

Chlorhexidine

At the pharmacy you need to buy a bottle of 0.05% solution. There is no need to dilute this chlorhexidine solution!

You need to gargle with this solution 3-4 times a day. The course of treatment is from 3 to 14 days.

Before using Chlorhexidine as a gargle, it is recommended that you first rinse your mouth thoroughly with warm water. Next, gargling is carried out as follows: take 1-2 tablespoons of the solution and gargle for about 30 seconds.

After gargling, it is advisable not to eat or drink anything for 1 hour.

According to the instructions, an overdose of the drug is impossible. But if you accidentally drank chlorhexidine, or swallowed a large amount of this medicine, you need to drink several tablets of activated charcoal, or, as a last resort, wash your stomach.

Contraindications when gargling with chlorhexidine: - High sensitivity to the components of the product. - Do not use at the same time with other antiseptics (hydrogen peroxide, etc.). — For the treatment of children, use with caution (make sure that the child does not drink the solution).

If the rinse is used for too long (longer than 2-3 weeks), taste sensations may change, tartar appears, and teeth discoloration may occur.

Note. You can also use Miramistin solution to gargle, but it is more expensive. In addition, some people write that it helps less than chlorhexidine, and it is also sometimes counterfeited.

Rinse with soda-saline solution

In case of traffic jams and plaque on the tonsils, rinsing with a soda-saline solution is carried out. Add a teaspoon of soda, a teaspoon of salt and 2-3 drops of iodine to one glass of water. You need to gargle 5-6 times a day = 5-14 days.

Eucalyptus tincture

It is very useful for adults and children over 3 years old to gargle with eucalyptus tincture - if there is no allergy to it, of course. The tincture must be purchased at a pharmacy. For rinsing, use 10–15 drops per glass of water 3–4 times a day. - 10 days.

Aloe juice

You can buy Aloe juice at the pharmacy. It needs to be dissolved in the mouth - a teaspoon 1-2 times a day, the course of treatment is up to 2-3 weeks. It is used to treat adults and children under 12 years of age, provided there are no contraindications (read the instructions first).

IMPORTANT!

All these gargles may not be enough to treat severe sore throat or chronic treatment! It is necessary to intensify treatment using the following methods:

1. Find on the Internet a special exercise for the throat called LION POSE. This exercise should be done immediately before gargling.

2. For chronic tonsillitis, it would be useful to use an ultraviolet quartz irradiator “Sun” with a throat attachment. It can be purchased in medical supply stores or online. The cost of such devices at the beginning of 2021 is approximately 2-3 thousand rubles.

Requires careful handling! The device must be used strictly according to its instructions. Yes, and it cannot be used often, the course of treatment is 1-2 times a year.

3. What else needs to be done in most cases with chronic throat diseases is to increase immunity.

Moreover, from my point of view, this is best done with the help of medicinal plants. For example, for throat diseases, my favorite ALOE is very useful - especially in the form of subcutaneous injections into the arm. Let me remind you that aloe injections cannot be given into the muscle.

Aloe in injections

Buy liquid aloe extract for injection, 1 ml ampoules. Inject with an insulin syringe - subcutaneously!!!, and not intramuscularly, that is, inject into the arm. The course of treatment is daily or every other day, at least 10 injections, but in severe cases - up to 20 injections.

Attention! Aloe for injection has contraindications! Please read the instructions carefully before use! Contraindications: Severe cardiovascular diseases, severe arterial hypertension, acute gastrointestinal disorders, nephrosonephritis, pregnancy.

4. The main thing! While treating your throat, do not forget to drink plenty of warm liquids. You need to drink 1–1.5 liters of plain water (warm or room temperature) daily. Cranberry juice or decoction with lingonberry leaves are useful.

5. Sugar and sweets, especially sweet drinks, should be removed from the diet.

6. It is necessary to treat your teeth in a timely manner - chronic tonsillitis often develops as a result of diseases of the gums and teeth (caries, pulpitis).

***

The author of the article is Dr. Evdokimenko©. Attention! When copying or reprinting materials, be sure to indicate the source! All articles, news and book chapters are protected by copyright P.V. Evdokimenko©

How to treat tonsils using traditional methods?

Before moving on to home treatment methods with folk remedies, it is recommended to consult with your doctor, especially if such methods are planned to be used for children.

The fact is that decoctions of medicinal herbs are noticeably inferior in effectiveness to simple antiseptics from the pharmacy, or even ordinary salt and soda. When choosing folk remedies, you should be prepared to consult a doctor in a timely manner if symptoms do not subside after 2-3 days.

Decoctions for rinsing

When the tonsils become inflamed, traditional medicine suggests using the following recipes for treatment at home.

1. Sage decoction. Take a tablespoon of the medicinal plant, place it in a bowl and add 500 ml of water. Cook covered for 15-20 minutes over low heat. Then strain and cool.
2. Propolis tincture. Grind 10 g of propolis, pour in 100 ml of vodka, placing the medicine in a glass container. Leave in a dark place for two weeks, shaking daily. Then use to gargle, dissolving a teaspoon of the product in a glass of water.
3. Chamomile with honey. Prepare a decoction of one large spoon of chamomile flowers and a glass of water, cool to a temperature of 37 degrees and add a tablespoon of honey. Gargle with this remedy 4 times a day.
4. Medicine with garlic. Squeeze 3-4 cloves of garlic into a glass, pour boiling water and leave until the water cools to a comfortable temperature. Gargle with this product morning and evening.
5. Vinegar for gargling: add a teaspoon of vinegar to a glass of boiled water, mix thoroughly and use 3 times a day.

Such remedies are not recommended for treating tonsils in children at home. An adult can experiment with his health, but if a child has tonsillitis, it is necessary to visit a doctor as soon as possible.

Ointments and compresses

There are several other home treatments.

1. Traditional medicine suggests lubricating the tonsils with honey to quickly cope with the disease. In general, honey does have antiseptic properties and strengthens the immune system, therefore it is useful for tonsillitis. However, candied honey can injure the tonsils, thereby causing a deterioration in health, so doctors recommend using it in the usual way - with warm milk.
2. Another ointment is celandine juice mixed with cocoa butter. It is necessary to melt 100 g of butter in a water bath, add 5 drops of celandine juice, simmer a little over the fire, and then cool. A slightly warm ointment is applied to the tonsils 3-4 times a day.
3. To reduce swelling in chronic tonsillitis, compresses with vodka are offered. They can be placed only after making sure that there is no fever or acute inflammatory process.
4. A regular cabbage leaf will help relieve a sore throat. It must be kneaded with your fingers, then greased generously with honey mixed with melted butter and applied to the neck.
5. Heat sunflower oil (50 ml), squeeze 10 cloves of garlic into it, mix everything and leave to cool. Then apply the product to gauze or bandage and apply to the neck.
6. Grate a large onion, then strain the pulp through cheesecloth, squeezing out the juice. Mix the juice half and half with water, and then apply the product to the tonsils using a cotton swab. Repeat morning and evening.

Compresses should not be used in case of inflammation or enlargement of the lymph nodes, exacerbation of tonsillitis and high temperature. You need to keep the compress for an hour, it is better to do it before bed.

Warming up the throat

An effective folk remedy for sore throat (not recommended for people with high blood pressure)

The following method is prohibited for acute tonsillitis, but can really help with chronic tonsillitis. You need to boil 5-6 large potatoes in a large saucepan. When the potatoes are ready, mash them with a fork directly in the water. Wait until the water cools a little, and then lean over the pan and cover with a towel. Breathing steam is useful for chronic sluggish tonsillitis, as warm air helps clear the tonsils of congestion.

Another way to warm up is to breathe over a decoction of oak bark. To do this, you need to boil 50 g of oak bark for half an hour in a large saucepan (3-5 liters), and then breathe in the steam for half an hour.

To avoid re-infection or exacerbation of tonsillitis, traditional healers recommend hanging sprigs of lavender, bunches of celandine, sage and mint around the house. These herbs disinfect indoor air. To strengthen the immune system, you can take echinacea tincture.

How to deal with chronic tonsillitis?

How to deal with chronic tonsillitis?

An otolaryngologist of the highest category, director of the onColor medical cryology center, Doctor of Medical Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich KOCHENOV will help you understand this issue.

— Vladimir Ivanovich, if a person often has a sore throat, is this a sign of chronic tonsillitis?

— Chronic tonsillitis is an inflammation of the tonsils, exacerbations of which manifest themselves in the form of sore throats, always with high fever.

People often call any unpleasant sensation in the throat a sore throat, but this is not true. If the temperature is low and the pain is not severe, a person may not take sick leave and suffer from the disease on his feet. Most often, this signal is an exacerbation of pharyngitis.

— Why do the palatine tonsils become inflamed?

— The palatine tonsils are the largest accumulation of lymphoid tissue in the body, which plays an immunological role. Here, new microorganisms, viruses and other foreign agents are “studied”, ways to combat them are found, then this information is “stored” in the palatine tonsils throughout life. Thus, the tonsils are always at the forefront of the fight against infection, which is why they themselves often get sick, especially in young people.

— Can the problem of tonsillitis be solved by removing the tonsils?

— The number of tonsillectomies has decreased sharply compared to even the 70s. After all, the recommendation to remove the tonsils is quite akin to the advice to cut off a finger if you get a splinter.

When comparing groups of young people with and without tonsils removed in childhood, it turned out that those who underwent this intervention were shorter, more susceptible to colds, and less developed physically and even mentally. And adults without tonsils, the organ of immunity, always suffer from the inevitable pharyngitis and more often have cancer.

- How then to treat a sore throat?

- Today, any inflammation in the tonsils can be eliminated using new gentle treatment methods. Among them are cryotherapy, ultrasonic sterilizing cavitation, laser therapy, supplemented by traditional lavage of lacunae.

— Should I use antibiotics?

— Antibiotics cannot eliminate inflammation in the tonsils; this is a path to the development of fungal infection of the pharynx.

Daily and regular rinsing of the throat with decoctions of medicinal herbs, sometimes with the addition of hydrogen peroxide or antiseptics, is necessary.

Dietary supplements normalize the protective functions of the lymphoid tissue of the tonsils; they begin to protect themselves and the entire body from inflammation.

— What is the prevention of tonsillitis?

— Regular (every 3-5 years) preventive use of cryotherapy, a non-surgical treatment with ultra-low temperatures, a kind of local hardening of the throat, allows maintaining the body’s performance at the proper level throughout life.

Love, take care of your tonsils, take care of them and be healthy.

For your information

Sore throats often occur in people with difficulty breathing through their nose. If a person breathes through the mouth, the microbes contained in the air fall directly on the tonsils, the air is not warmed, not moistened and not cleared of dust. Therefore, it is very important to learn to breathe through your nose.

And in cases where this is difficult to achieve, for example, when doing physical work or running in the cold season, you can use a simple technique. To warm the air entering your mouth, you need to press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Cold air flowing around the tongue will have time to warm up before it hits the tonsils.

Ekaterina QUEEN.

Possible complications

Home treatment for tonsillitis is dangerous due to complications. If treated incorrectly, acute tonsillitis turns into chronic tonsillitis. There is also a risk of developing a peritonsillar abscess. This condition is very dangerous, since a large cavity filled with pus forms in the throat near the tonsils. If an abscess ruptures on its own, the purulent masses can infect the entire body. There is a high risk of infection of the blood, bronchi and lungs.

Advanced chronic tonsillitis is practically untreatable. To improve well-being and get rid of constant sore throat, a person will have to have his tonsils removed.

To avoid complications, it is recommended to consult a doctor promptly. It is better to coordinate home treatment with a specialist. If it was not possible to avoid the development of chronic tonsillitis, it is necessary to consult a doctor about the possibilities of effective treatment. There is no need to endure a sore throat, especially if the inflamed tonsils negatively affect the functioning of the entire body. There are many modern methods of effective treatment of chronic tonsillitis, for example, cryodestruction and laser removal of tonsils.