Itchy Throat and Sore Throat: What Can You Do?

Do you have a recurrent sore throat or a persistent itchy throat in Singapore? Itchy sore throat symptoms can really affect your quality of life, making it difficult to sleep at night or concentrate on your work in the daytime. In fact, it is a downright irritating problem for many people who don’t realise that actually, itchy throat and sore throats can be treated quite successfully to give them some long-awaited relief!

As top ENT specialists in Singapore, we see many ENT patients with sore itchy throats and we will always try to isolate the cause of the sore itchy throat. Making the right diagnosis is the key to starting the right treatment for your itchy throat. Reasons for itchy and sore throats in Singapore include suffering from a postnasal drip of mucus from the back of your nose, acid reflux and actual tonsil infections. If you notice white spots on your tonsils which keep recurring, then these may be tonsil stones, often a sign of underlying recurrent throat infections or chronic tonsil inflammation.

Some patients with sore throats or throat discomfort may also notice bad breath (halitosis) and a constant irritating feeling to keep clearing their throats, making recurrent throat noises quite frequently. Sometimes, after having just recovered from a bout of the flu or common cold, a backdrip of watery mucus flowing from the back of your nose, may persist for a few days to a few weeks, leading to constant irritation of your throat. if the postnasal drip is yellow or purulent, then it might be caused by sinusitis or an infection of your sinuses, which is a complication of the flu in some less fortunate patients. If you are notice a purulent postnasal drip, suffer from associated headaches or fever, or actually have throat pain, then you may need to see your ENT specialist in Singapore for a course of antibiotics and other appropriate medications.

So what can we do about the common causes of sore itchy throats, before we decide to see an ENT specialist in Singapore?

Here are Dr Annabelle’s 5 Helpful Tips for Itchy Sore Throat Relief:

1. Make sure you drink 6 glasses of warm water daily to keep your throat from feeling too dry.
2. Regular gargles with warm saltwater or Difflam gargles can also help to soothe your irritated itchy sore throat.
3. Starting a saline Sinus Rinse to keep your nasal passages clear of mucus also helps a lot to reduce any postnasal drip flowing down from the back of your nose into your throat.
4. Trying a course of antihistamine medications such as Telfast, Clarityn or Zyrtec, can help to clear nasal congestion and alleviate the persistent backdrip of mucus from causing the itchy throat.
5. A trial of anti-acid reflux medications may be necessary to treat any underlying acid irritation coming up from your stomach into your throat. Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) can affect your throat to cause persistent throat itching and discomfort, together with bloating and burping a lot. Helicobacter Pylori is a bacteria that may live in your stomach to cause persistent GERD symptoms with an increased risk of going on to develop stomach cancer if not eradicated. Simple off-the-counter medications such as Gaviscon may help to relieve GERD symptoms first until you find the time to see an ENT doctor in Singapore for investigation and stronger treatment of your persistent sore throat.

I hope your throat feels better soon with these simple tips, friends!

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