What does this mean?
The side wall of the throat, the tonsils and the very back of the lower jaw are neighbouring tissues, and they are largely supplied by the same nerve branches. That is why infection starting behind your lower jaw can be felt as pain in the throat and in the ear on the same side. The complaint is described as a sore throat, while the source sits a few centimetres further forward, inside the mouth.
Being one-sided is the distinguishing part of this symptom. A throat infection caused by a virus usually takes both sides at once, comes with a runny nose and a cough, and peaks within a few days before easing off. Pain that stays on one side, gets worse when you swallow, runs to the ear on that side and makes opening your mouth harder points instead to infection under the flap of gum covering a wisdom tooth. When you touch that area with your tongue you may feel swollen, tender gum, and you may have a bad taste in your mouth.
The same description has other explanations too. Tonsil stones, a tonsil enlarged on one side and, less often, a sore in the tonsil area that is not healing can give a similar complaint. For that reason a one-sided sore throat lasting more than three weeks, or going along with hoarseness or weight loss, is assessed separately. The distinction is made by looking inside the mouth, examining the throat and, where needed, an X-ray.
The source of a one-sided sore throat can lie at the back of the mouth or in the tonsils, and the first things the clinician looks at are which movement makes the pain worse and how wide you can open your mouth.
Likely causes
What helps at home?
- You can rinse gently with warm salt water. This does not treat the infection, but it helps keep the area clean and gives some relief.
- Do not poke at the inflamed area with your tongue, a toothpick or the hard end of a brush, because that adds to the bleeding and the swelling.
- Do not take left-over medicines at random to hold the pain down. A course of antibiotics left unfinished can let the infection carry on quietly.
- Check how wide you can open your mouth in the same way each day. An opening that keeps getting smaller is not a sign to manage by waiting.
- If you cannot open your mouth as wide as two fingers, or the opening is getting a little smaller each day
- If swallowing has become so hard that you struggle even to take fluids
- If a temperature, swelling in the neck or hardening under the jaw goes with it
- If your voice has become muffled, or you have started to struggle to breathe
- If the pain has gone past three weeks yet stays on the same side and runs to your ear
Frequently asked questions
- Can my wisdom tooth cause a sore throat?
- It can. Bacteria collect under the flap of gum covering a wisdom tooth that has not come fully through, and an infection settles there. Because the area neighbours the throat and the swallowing muscles, the pain is experienced as a sore throat, gets worse when you swallow and can run to the ear. The distinction is made by an examination inside the mouth and an X-ray.
- Is an antibiotic enough, or does the tooth need taking out?
- That decision changes with how far the infection has spread and where the tooth sits. An antibiotic can push back an acute infection, but as long as the flap of gum over the tooth and the space beneath it stay where they are, the picture is expected to come back. The lasting answer is most often either reshaping the gum or taking the tooth out, and which one suits you is decided by examination and an X-ray.
- Which clinician should I see first?
- If your pain comes with a runny nose, a cough and a temperature and is felt on both sides at once, an ear, nose and throat assessment makes sense. If the pain stays on one side, gets worse when you swallow and when you open your mouth, and you have a wisdom tooth coming through in that area, a dental examination will show the source faster.
This content is for general information and does not replace an in-person examination. Symptoms overlap between conditions, and a diagnosis can only be made clinically.