Tonsillitis and Tonsillectomy

Schedule your evaluation today

What are the tonsils?

Your tonsils are two small, rounded lumps of tissue on each side in the back of your throat that help you to sample the environment and generate immunity during early childhood. As we get older, they tend to become less important for immunity and can be more hurtful than helpful. When the tonsils are problematic or frequently infected, they can be removed without weakening the immune system in any meaningful way. In fact, if the tonsils are removed there is still a ring of this immunity barrier left behind that is still functioning. Tonsillitis is the result of inflammation, swelling and irritation of the tonsils that can lead to symptoms of throat pain, bad breath and even production of debris. Tonsils can be affected by viruses and bacteria as well as rarely fungus. Often tonsillitis resembles a viral infection with sore throat, swollen tonsils, fever and swollen lymph nodes. Patients will sometimes describe feeling like they are swallowing glass.

A single infection of the tonsils, even if it is severe, does not usually meet indications for surgery. Criteria have been created for when tonsil removal should be considered. Generally these criteria are multiple infections every year or very prolonged infections lasting several months. Again, these are guidelines and each individual circumstance needs to be considered in relation to the risks that surgery could impose.

There have been other times that tonsils may require removal. This includes snoring with very large tonsils, asymmetric enlarged tonsils and tonsil stones. Tonsil stones are when our tonsils create debris that is very foul-smelling and recurrently accumulates in the tonsils. People will sometimes pick at this debris with Q-tips or try to rinse them with water. Despite this, they continue to recur. In these instances, we may consider tonsillectomy as well. Lastly, an abscess can develop during a tonsil infection leading to a sore throat that is so severe it is difficult to open the mouth. This may be yet another reason for removal.

What is a tonsillectomy? Tonsillectomy is the procedure for removal of the tonsils if any of these criteria are met and seem to outweigh the risks of surgery. We do have to consider the risk of surgery as there are some significant risks which include bleeding after surgery, dehydration and loss of taste. Though these are not frequent occurrences, they need to be considered in terms of the benefit that is hoped to be achieved by surgery. The surgery is a very short and relatively straightforward procedure of removing the tonsils with a fine focused cautery in the operating room. Generally surgery takes only about 30 to 45 minutes and is usually done on an outpatient basis. However, the 2 weeks following surgery can be somewhat difficult. Throat pain is the major complaint after surgery although loss of taste and change in speech can temporarily affect the patient. Medications are given to reduce or alleviate pain and make the process more bearable. With this said, surgery of the tonsils has been done millions of times and is done safely in the far majority of all surgeries. Special efforts can be made to help with postoperative pain including numbing the tonsils or placing protective membranes in the tonsil bed to try to help with the healing process.

The first step towards resolving problematic tonsils will be an evaluation with physical examination and discussion of the severity of the symptoms. If you have been suffering from tonsillitis or any of the above problems, we will be glad to evaluate your tonsils and come up with a treatment plan that seems to fit the severity of your complaints. We welcome your phone call to help you on the road to recovery.