Tonsillitis

Tonsillitis is an infection of the tonsils at the back of your throat. It is a common childhood illness, but teenagers and adults can get it too.

Check if you have tonsillitis

Tonsillitis can feel like a bad cold or flu. The tonsils at the back of your throat will be red and swollen.

The main symptoms in children and adults are:

Sometimes the symptoms can be more severe and include:

What your tonsils may look like if you have tonsillitis
White patches on tonsils in the back of the mouth.
Tonsils with white patches at the back of the throat.

If you're not sure it's tonsillitis

Look at other sore throat symptoms.

How long tonsillitis lasts

Symptoms will usually go away after 3 to 4 days.

Tonsillitis is not contagious, but most of the infections that cause it are, for example, colds and flu.

To stop these infections spreading:

How to treat tonsillitis yourself

Tonsillitis usually gets better on its own after a few days.

To help treat the symptoms:

How to gargle with salty water
  1. Mix half a teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water and stir until it has dissolved.
  2. Gargle with the salty water (do not swallow it), then spit it out.
  3. Repeat as often as you like.

Young children should not gargle with salty water.

A pharmacist can help with tonsillitis

Speak to a pharmacist about tonsillitis.

They can give advice and suggest treatments, like:

Non-urgent advice: See a GP if:

  • the symptoms do not go away within 4 days
  • you keep getting throat infections

Urgent advice: Get advice from 111 now if you have:

  • pus-filled spots on your tonsils
  • a sore throat so painful it's difficult to eat or drink

What happens at your GP appointment

A doctor can usually tell it's tonsillitis by asking about your symptoms and looking at the back of your throat.

You may also need:

You should get any test results back within 2 or 3 days.

Treatment from a GP

Treatment will depend on what caused your tonsillitis:

A GP will usually wait for the test results to tell which type you have.

Important: Surgery to remove your tonsils

It's very rare that someone needs to have their tonsils taken out.

This is usually only the case if you have severe tonsillitis that keeps coming back.

Causes of tonsillitis

Tonsillitis is usually caused by a virus, such as a cold, but it can also be due to a bacterial infection such as strep throat.

Complications with tonsillitis (quinsy)

Complications with tonsillitis are very rare.

Sometimes you can get a pocket filled with pus (abscess) between your tonsils and the wall of your throat. This is called quinsy.

Immediate action required: Call 999 or go to A&E if:

  • you have a severe sore throat that quickly gets worse
  • you have swelling inside the mouth and throat
  • you have difficulty speaking
  • you cannot swallow
  • you have difficulty breathing
  • you have difficulty opening your mouth

These are signs of quinsy.

Page last reviewed: 10 February 2021
Next review due: 10 February 2024