Sore Throat

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Sore Throat

Basics

Summary
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Symptoms
Diagnosis and Tests
Treatments and Therapies

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Summary

Your throat is a tube that carries food to your esophagus and air to your windpipe and larynx (also called the voice box). The technical name for the throat is pharynx.

You can have a sore throat for many reasons. Often, colds and flu cause sore throats. Other causes can include:

Treatment depends on the cause. Sucking on lozenges, drinking lots of liquids, and gargling may ease the pain. Over-the-counter pain relievers can also help, but children should not take aspirin.

Start Here

Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work - Sore Throat (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Sore Throat (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
Sore Throat? Know When To Call the Doctor (American Osteopathic Association)
Sore Throats (American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery)

Symptoms

Sore Throat: Symptoms and Causes (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
Throat Problems (Symptom Checker) (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

Difference between a Sore Throat, Strep, and Tonsillitis (American Academy of Pediatrics) Also in Spanish
Strep Throat Test (American Association for Clinical Chemistry)
Throat Culture (American Association for Clinical Chemistry)

Treatments and Therapies

Mouth or Throat Pain or Sores (American Cancer Society) Also in Spanish
Soothing a Sore Throat (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish
Sore Throat: Diagnosis and Treatment (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

Clinical Trials

ClinicalTrials.gov: Pharyngitis (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

Reference Desk

Pharynx Anatomy (National Cancer Institute)

Find an Expert

American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery
Find an ENT (American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Children

Sore Throat (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation)
When a Sore Throat Is a More Serious Infection (American Academy of Pediatrics) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

Pharyngitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
Pharyngitis - viral (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish