Does chronic pharyngitis cause coughing?

The characteristics of chronic pharyngitis are a long course of disease and repeated recurrences, which have a great impact on the patient's health and life. Chronic pharyngitis has certain similarities in symptoms with some other respiratory diseases. If you don’t understand them, it is easy to confuse them, which will definitely affect the treatment. So, will chronic pharyngitis cause cough? Let’s take a closer look below.

Chronic pharyngitis is more common in adults, but can also occur in children. Systemic symptoms are not obvious, and local symptoms are the main ones. The symptoms of various types of chronic pharyngitis are roughly similar and varied, such as discomfort in the throat, foreign body sensation, difficulty in coughing up pharyngeal secretions, itching, burning, dryness or irritation in the throat, and may also be slight pain. Since the posterior pharyngeal wall usually has thick secretions adhering to it due to chronic inflammation of the pharynx, and since lesions of the nose, sinuses, and nasopharynx cause mouth breathing at night, irritating coughs and nausea often occur in the morning. Frequent swallowing may occur due to the foreign body sensation in the throat. People with little pharyngeal secretions that are difficult to cough up often have habitual dry coughs and clearing the throat to expectorate. If you cough or clear your throat hard, it may cause bleeding of the pharyngeal mucosa, resulting in blood in the secretions.

1. Chronic simple pharyngitis

Examination revealed chronic congestion of the pharyngeal mucosa, varicose small blood vessels, dark red color, and a small amount of viscous secretions on the surface.

2. Chronic hypertrophic pharyngitis

Examination of the pharynx may reveal multiple granular follicular protrusions on the posterior pharyngeal wall, which appear chronically congested and sometimes fuse together. Cystic white spots may form on the tops of the lymphatic granules, and yellow-white exudate may be seen when they rupture. The lateral pharyngeal cord lymphoid tissue may thicken and become cord-like.

3. Chronic atrophic pharyngitis or chronic dry pharyngitis

There are dry crusts on the pharynx and bad breath. Examination showed that the pharyngeal mucosa was dry and thin, and in severe cases, it was scaly and shiny. It may be covered with purulent dry crusts, and if the lesions extend to the Eustachian tube, it may cause tinnitus and hearing loss. Spreading to the larynx, it can cause hoarseness.

4. Reflux pharyngitis

Pharyngeal examination is similar to that for chronic simple and hypertrophic pharyngitis. Laryngopharyngeal reflux may be accompanied by vocal cord nodules, vocal cord polyps, and hoarseness.

The above symptoms are often aggravated by excessive use of the voice, sudden changes in climate, or changes in ambient temperature and humidity, especially atrophic and dry pharyngitis.