Strep throat often starts as a typical sore throat. Within about three days of the initial sore throat, you may develop additional symptoms, including:. If you no longer have your tonsils, you can still experience the above symptoms with strep throat.
To diagnose strep throat, your doctor will first look for signs of a bacterial infection inside your mouth. A sore throat accompanied with white or red patches in the throat is likely caused by a bacterial infection and will need further evaluation. If you have these patches inside your mouth, your doctor may take a swab of a fluid sample from the back of your throat.
This is also called a rapid strep test because the results are available within 15 minutes. A positive result means you likely have strep. However, your doctor may send the sample out for further evaluation.
At this point, a lab technician looks at the sample under a microscope to see if any bacteria are present. Strep throat is a bacterial infection, so it must be treated with an antibiotic.
Even if you start seeing an improvement in symptoms after a few days, still take your full antibiotic prescription to prevent any complications. Antibiotics are typically prescribed for 10 days at a time. Sore throats caused by viral infections resolve on their own with time and rest. Frequent strep throat may warrant a tonsillectomy. Your doctor may recommend the procedure if you have strep throat seven times or more within a month period. Removing the tonsils will likely reduce the number of infections and the severity of the strep symptoms, though.
Strep throat is highly contagious, so prevention is key. If the infection breaks out of a tonsil and gets into the space around it, an abscess can form. Luckily, peritonsillar abscesses aren't that common these days because doctors use antibiotics to treat tonsillitis.
Tooth and gum disease can increase the chances of a peritonsillar abscess, as can smoking — more good reasons to brush your teeth and not smoke. Often, the first sign of a peritonsillar abscess is a sore throat. As the abscess develops, other symptoms start, such as:. An abscess that's not treated quickly can lead to serious problems — for example, the infection may go into the jaw and neck.
If the abscess pops, the infection may spread to the chest and lead to pneumonia. Call your doctor if you have a sore throat with a fever or any of the other problems that can be caused by a peritonsillar abscess. It's rare that an abscess will get in the way of your breathing, but if it does, you may need to go to the emergency room right away.
The doctor will examine your mouth, throat, and neck. Relation between peritonsillar infection and acute tonsillitis: myth or reality? Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. Standring S, ed. An evidence-based review of the treatment of peritonsillar abscess. Albertz N, Nazar G. Peritonsillar abscess: treatment with immediate tonsillectomy - 10 years of experience. Acta Otolaryngol. Klug TE. Incidence and microbiology of peritonsillar abscess: the influence of season, age, and gender.
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Fairbanks DN. Deep neck space abscesses. The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy. Sperryville, Va. Out-patient management of patients with a peritonsillar abscess. Prospective audit on the outpatient management of patients with a peritonsillar abscess: closing the loop: how we do it. Changing trends of peritonsillar abscess. Am J Otolaryngol. Prognostic factors and effects of early surgical drainage in patients with peritonsillar abscess.
J Infect Chemother. Dexamethasone as adjuvant therapy for severe acute pharyngitis. Ann Emerg Med. The efficacy of corticosteroids in the treatment of peritonsillar abscess: a meta-analysis. Clin Exp Otorhinolaryngol. Steyer TE. Peritonsillar abscess: diagnosis and treatment [published correction appears in Am Fam Physician.
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