In the past, atonsillectomy, the surgery that is performed to remove swollen and/or infected tonsils, was performed routinely, sometimes in a doctor’s office. This resulted in a concern within the medical community that too many tonsillectomies were being performed unnecessarily.
Today, there are guidelines for performing a tonsillectomy that should be met before surgery is performed. If these guidelines are not met, the patient may find that insurance will not pay for the procedure, as it is not considered necessary.
Even with the current guidelines, a tonsillectomy is a very common procedure, with 289,000 performed annually on children under age 15 in the United States.Most tonsillectomy patients are children who have infected tonsils. Most adults who have their tonsils removed are doing so to improve sleep apnea, but there are the occasional but rare cases of adults who have their tonsils removed due to recurrent infections.
While tonsillitis does make your throat hurt, a sore throat isn’t necessarily tonsillitis. With tonsillitis at least one of the palatine tonsils are swollen and infected. The adenoids, a different set of tonsils, can also become infected and painful and may be removed with the palatine tonsils if necessary.
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2 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mitchell RB, Archer SM, Ishman SL, et al.Clinical practice guideline: tonsillectomy in children (update).Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019;160(1_suppl):S1-S42. doi:10.1177/0194599818801757Podeur P, Mancini J, Delgrande J, et al.Role of tonsillectomy in the management of carcinomas of unknown primary of the head and neck: a retrospective study based on p16 analysis.Front Oncol. 2020;10:594168. doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.594168
2 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mitchell RB, Archer SM, Ishman SL, et al.Clinical practice guideline: tonsillectomy in children (update).Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019;160(1_suppl):S1-S42. doi:10.1177/0194599818801757Podeur P, Mancini J, Delgrande J, et al.Role of tonsillectomy in the management of carcinomas of unknown primary of the head and neck: a retrospective study based on p16 analysis.Front Oncol. 2020;10:594168. doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.594168
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Mitchell RB, Archer SM, Ishman SL, et al.Clinical practice guideline: tonsillectomy in children (update).Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019;160(1_suppl):S1-S42. doi:10.1177/0194599818801757Podeur P, Mancini J, Delgrande J, et al.Role of tonsillectomy in the management of carcinomas of unknown primary of the head and neck: a retrospective study based on p16 analysis.Front Oncol. 2020;10:594168. doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.594168
Mitchell RB, Archer SM, Ishman SL, et al.Clinical practice guideline: tonsillectomy in children (update).Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019;160(1_suppl):S1-S42. doi:10.1177/0194599818801757
Podeur P, Mancini J, Delgrande J, et al.Role of tonsillectomy in the management of carcinomas of unknown primary of the head and neck: a retrospective study based on p16 analysis.Front Oncol. 2020;10:594168. doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.594168
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