A sore throat can certainly be considered a nuisance - it can make patients feel irritable or have problems swallowing food and liquids - but in most cases it is not a reason to see a doctor. In some cases, however, the doctor should definitely take a look at our throat and assess whether the use of home remedies for pharyngitis will be sufficient to cure it, or whether it may be necessary to implement more intensive treatment for the patient. But when should we go to the doctor with a sore throat, and when is it sufficient to use symptomatic, well-known remedies for a sore throat ?

Intensity of a sore throat and the need to see a doctor

Assessing the intensity of a sore throat - certainly not surprisingly - is an extremely subjective aspect. Some of us are more sensitive to pain stimuli, while others are decidedly less so - for this reason, two people struggling with exactly the same degree of sore throat inflammation may assess their pain extremely differently.

In view of the above, it is difficult to draw a single universal conclusion as to what intensity of sore throat should be consulted with a doctor. However, one thing can be said here: if the sore throat is so intense that the patient feels it basically all the time, and if severe pain occurs when trying to swallow anything (and especially if the pain discourages us from eating), then it is definitely worth going to the doctor. This is because a severe sore throat may be due to bacterial pharyngitis, which is treated differently from the more common viral pharyngitis. However, in diagnosing bacterial pharyngitis, it is not only the intensity of the sore throat that is important, but also the other symptoms present in the patient.

Symptoms accompanying a sore throat, making it necessary to consult a doctor

There are at least several causes of pharyngitis. The most common are two types of this condition: viral pharyngitis and bacterial pharyngitis. The former accounts for the majority of the causes of sore throats and is treated symptomatically - in order to alleviate the symptoms of viral pharyngitis, patients are advised, among other things, to drink plenty of fluids, rest, humidify the air, and take a variety of over-the-counter sore throat preparations (in the form of, among other things, lozenges or sprays).

In contrast, the treatment of pharyngitis, which is caused by a bacterial infection, is considerably different. In this case, patients may be advised to take antibiotics - antibiotic therapy is particularly important for one form of this condition, namely streptococcal tonsillitis. But how can you tell the difference between bacterial and viral pharyngitis?