Sore throat: What are adenoids and how to treat a sore throat
Sore throat - a common symptom of a cold; it can usually be relieved by rinsing or candy, and after a few days, it inevitably passes by itself. True, in childhood memories, sore throat in many is associated with horrors, from a total ban on ice cream in winter to operations to remove tonsils or adenoids (or intimidation by these operations). We understand why the sore throat is different, what adenoids are and whether they need to be removed, when to take antibiotics and how to gargle.
Text: Ksenia Akinshina
What is a pharyngeal ring
In the throat are the tonsils - clusters of lymphoid tissue; these are the immune organs that protect the entrance to the digestive and respiratory systems, the first to respond to incoming microbes. Tonsils are called the first line of defense of the body. In addition to palatine tonsils (which can be seen by looking in a mirror with a wide open mouth), there are also pharyngeal, lingual, and two tubal tonsils, and together they form a lymphatic pharyngeal ring.
Adenoids (and more correctly to say "adenoid vegetations") are the proliferation of the tissue of the pharyngeal tonsil. You cannot see them, just by opening your mouth, it is impossible, for this you need an inspection using a special ENT mirror or an endoscope. Adenoids are normally found only in children; at the age of seven or eight, they begin to decrease, and by adulthood they should disappear completely; at this stage, the immune system is already formed, and the body has other defense mechanisms.
Why adenoids grow
In 2012, data from a study conducted in India was published - it turned out that enlarged adenoids caused nasal breathing disorders in 21% of cases in people aged 16 to 65 years. That is, it turned out that this is not an exclusively child state. The most common cause of lymphoid tissue growth in adults is infections and allergies, and also smoking and environmental pollution. In children, this may occur due to frequent colds, and the predisposition to the growth of adenoids seems to be related to genetics: as it turned out quite recently, mutations of the Ugrp2 gene increase the likelihood of growth.
Too much hypertrophy of the adenoids is dangerous, and if with a slight increase (first degree) there may be problems with sleep and mood, then the second degree can lead to headache, dizziness, weakness, otitis media and a decrease in hearing. With the most severe, third degree, a person (most often a child) may lose hearing, possibly sleep apnea (breathing stops in sleep), developmental problems due to the fact that adenoids block the nasal passages and there is not enough oxygen in the brain. Even in medicine there is the concept of "adenoid type of face". If adenoids in a child have increased too much, and parents are not in a hurry with effective treatment (they do not decide on the operation or spend time on appeals to homeopaths), then nasal breathing is constantly disturbed. A person breathes with his mouth, which is constantly open - and as a result, the development of the jaws changes, the occlusion (occlusion) is deformed.
When and how to remove them
The attitude to the surgical treatment of adenoids with the development of medicine has changed. Previously, sprawls were removed, starting with the second degree, but now they resort to surgery when the situation is difficult: the child does not breathe through his nose, develops chronic otitis, and his hearing begins to deteriorate. The operation is performed under anesthesia or sedation, when the person is conscious, but is relaxed and does not feel pain.
Most often, first attempts are made to drug therapy - if it helps, then the operation is not carried out; usually, such treatment includes antibiotics or sprays with steroid hormones and is prescribed during acute infection. It is important to understand that if the adenoids have grown, then they will not decrease, therefore with drugs one can only prevent their further growth. In a child, if it succeeds, over time, the growth will become smaller relative to other structures of the neck and head and may cease to cause inconvenience.
What is angina and pharyngitis
Angina is another name for acute tonsillitis, or inflammation of the tonsils; with pharyngitis, the throat also hurts, but the back wall of the pharynx, not the tonsils, is inflamed. The most common causes are viruses, sometimes a bacterial infection, less often - fungi or parasites. The most dangerous sore throat is streptococcal, it can have complications of the heart, kidneys or joints. Treatment depends on the cause: with a viral infection, you can only alleviate the symptoms, using rinses, lozenges, warm or, conversely, cold drinks. With streptococcal sore throat, antibiotics are needed; ideally, her diagnosis should be made by a doctor after bacteriological seeding, but now even in a pharmacy you can buy a strepto test that will help you quickly determine if there is a streptococcal infection. Sometimes chronic tonsillitis (and other ENT diseases) are caused not by bacteria or viruses, but by the throwing of the acidic contents of the stomach through the esophagus into the pharynx.
In acute tonsillitis on the tonsils, you can see bright spots that look like ulcers, and usually they disappear after an illness. But with chronic tonsillitis in the tonsils may form a "tube" - clusters of bacterial cells and cells of the tonsils themselves. Sometimes they harden due to calcium deposits falling from saliva. They smell unpleasantly, and a person may complain of bad breath even with excellent dental hygiene. These clusters can again and again become a source of infection, not only local, but also in distant organs. In Russia, patients with such a problem are given tonsillitis by five to ten procedures every six months or a year. However, this method does not lead to cure and is not used in world practice - the washing of the tonsils is not described at least in British and American therapeutic recommendations. Radically get rid of chronic tonsillitis can only be through surgery. It is recommended primarily for adults with severe exacerbations of angina.
How to relieve a sore throat
With the most frequent infections - viral - the cause of the disease can not be eliminated, but you can alleviate the symptoms. When you have a sore throat, rinsing is effective, best of all by antiseptics prescribed by a doctor, but salt water is also suitable. The remaining recommendations are the same as for the cold in general: to rest, take ibuprofen or paracetamol, humidify the air and drink warm or cold (whichever helps better) drinks.
Photo: chungking - stock.adobe.com, Venus - stock.adobe.com
