Why Does My Throat Hurt While Yawning? | Ear, Nose & Throat Associates | Blog

Posted on June 16, 2023 by Ear, Nose & Throat Associates

If you experience pain in your throat while yawning, you likely have inflammation in your throat. Let’s go over a few possible causes of this inflammation as well as how these conditions are traded.

What Does Throat Pain When Yawning Feel Like?

The type of pain you might feel when yawning will often depend on the cause. For example, pain caused by an injury may feel sharp and located in a specific spot. In comparison, infections may cause a scratchy or itchy sensation on both sides of your throat.

Common Causes of Throat Pain

• Viral illnesses. Things like the common cold, flu or COVID-19 can all cause a sore throat. When you yawn, air and saliva may come into contact with inflamed areas of your throat and cause pain.
• Strep throat. Strep throat is a common bacterial infection that accounts for roughly 5 to 15% of adult sore throat cases and 20 to 30% in children. If you have strep throat, swallowing can be particularly painful, but yawning can cause further irritation as well.
• Tonsilitis. Your tonsils are lymph nodes in the back of your throat. Tonsillitis occurs when these lymph nodes become infected. The condition usually causes a severe sore throat that causes pain when swallowing and yawning. Several viruses or bacteria can cause tonsillitis.
• Injury to the throat. Your throat can suffer small injuries if you accidentally swallow something sharp, like a chip that scratches the back of your throat. When you yawn, food particles and saliva can irritate the injury and cause further soreness.

Can Throat Pain Be a Sign of Something More Serious?

While rare, sometimes a sore throat can be a sign of something more serious, such as epiglottitis or throat cancer.

• Epiglottitis. This is an infection of your epiglottis, which is the tissue that covers your airways when you swallow. It is caused by a bacterial infection and can be life-threatening if it causes your airway to be blocked entirely. In addition to pain, while yawning, you will likely experience fever and painful swallowing.
• Throat cancer. A tumor in the throat can cause pain while yawning and swallowing in addition to persistent throat pain, hoarseness, swollen lymph nodes and chronic cough. However, it’s important to remember all these symptoms can also be caused by other conditions that are not cancer.

Treatment Options

See an ENT specialist to identify the cause of your throat pain and come up with treatment options which may include:

• Antibiotics
• Antifungal medication
• Home remedies like gargling with salt water and drinking warm fluids
• Taking over-the-counter pain medications that you can pick up from The Medicine Chest or other Fort Wayne pharmacies

To find out what’s causing your throat pain, call Ear, Nose & Throat Associates and schedule an appointment today.

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