That Persistent Cough: When Is It Time to Consult an ENT?

Although coughing works alongside your body's defenses, it’s primarily a protective airway reflex that helps clear irritants, mucus, and foreign material from your respiratory tract.

Coughing helps protect your body by forcefully expelling air from your lungs to remove germs, irritants, foreign matter, and excess mucus from your airways.

If you’re looking for ways to manage a chronic cough or other upper respiratory problems, our skilled providers at Michigan Avenue ENT in Chicago, Illinois, can help.

Coughing can also be a sign of illness. A persistent cough is often a symptom of an underlying condition. Read on to learn what may be causing your cough and when it's time to seek professional care.

Coughing basics

Several factors can cause coughing without indicating a long-term health problem, such as getting dirt, food, or another substance caught in your airway. Depending on the cause, coughing may be dry and nonproductive or wet and produce mucus or phlegm.

When due to a single event, like swallowing the wrong way, coughing is brief, but some acute cases can last up to three weeks, and subacute cases can occur after an infection. Coughing becomes chronic after eight weeks for adults and four weeks for children.

Causes of chronic coughing

Chronic coughing can result from several conditions, including:

• Asthma: one of the most common causes of coughing that may worsen in dry air conditions
• Allergies: one of several types of reactions that occur with exposure to allergens
• Smoking: smoke irritates your airways and commonly triggers coughing 
• Upper respiratory infections: colds, flu, whooping cough, and other illnesses 
• Heart failure: can cause a persistent cough, often accompanied by shortness of breath
• GERD: when stomach acid backs up into your esophagus and irritates your throat
• Lung disease: lung masses, pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, pleural effusions, and pneumonia 

Allergies and nasal disease also cause coughing through postnasal drip, also called upper airway cough syndrome (UACS), when excess mucus drips down your throat and irritates your airway. 

When to get medical help

In some cases, a persistent cough may warrant evaluation by an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist. 

An ENT can assess conditions involving your nose, sinuses, throat, and voice box that may contribute to chronic coughing, including postnasal drip, chronic sinusitis, throat irritation, reflux-related throat symptoms, and vocal cord disorders. 

If your cough persists despite treatment, is accompanied by chronic throat clearing or hoarseness, or has no clear cause, an ENT evaluation may be recommended.

Many acute cases resolve on their own, but if your cough lasts more than a few weeks and is accompanied by other symptoms like sleep problems, unexplained weight loss, or coughing up blood, you should seek medical attention. 

Chronic coughing can also lead to headaches, depression, anxiety, fainting, urinary leakage, muscle pain, broken ribs, and vomiting. These symptoms require medical help to manage.

An untreated chronic cough can affect your quality of life and, in some cases, lead to complications such as sleep disruption, urinary leakage, headaches, rib injuries, or vomiting. 

If you’re dealing with issues from chronic coughing, contact our team at Michigan Avenue ENT today to get the help you need.