Cough
What is a cough?
Coughing is a reflex where the body tries to remove foreign elements from the airways. This means that if foreign objects such as dust, foreign bodies, mucus and pus enter the airways, or if the mucous membrane becomes inflamed, this triggers a cough.
Occurrence
- Coughing is common during and after ordinary respiratory infections. Most often this will be a dry cough. This means that there is no mucus that comes up when you cough. In the case of long-term infections and at the end of innocent short-term infections, there is usually some mucus that comes up occasionally, i.e. a loose cough (productive cough).
- With sinusitis, mucus often flows backwards to the throat from the nose and sinuses – this also triggers a cough as a reflex to clear the throat and prevent mucus from flowing down the trachea and into the lungs
Common causes
- Upper respiratory tract infection
- Smoking
- Sinusitis
- Lower respiratory tract infection
- asthma
- COPD
- Reflux disease
- Whooping cough
- Side effect of medicine
- Other causes
Who can help you?
One of our ear, nose and throat specialists will be able to perform a satisfactory examination in order to make the correct diagnosis and start appropriate treatment.
We have standardized procedures as well as access to state-of-the-art equipment to ensure our patients are thoroughly and quickly assessed.