What Is Tonsillitis, and What Causes Tonsillitis? - Everyday Health

Tonsils are an important part of your immune system and the first line of defense against viruses or bacteria that you inhale or swallow.

They are lumps of a type of tissue called lymphoid tissue in the back of your mouth (flanking the uvula, which hangs down centered above the throat).

Technically, you have a few different types of tonsils, including two palatine tonsils — the large ones you generally think of as your tonsils — a clump of nasopharyngeal tonsils (known as adenoids), two tubal tonsils, and a clump of lingual tonsils.

When it comes to tonsillitis, doctors usually refer to the large palatine tonsils as your tonsils and your adenoids, which are located in the back of the throat above the uvula rather than on the sides of the back of the throat where the other tonsils sit.

Tonsillitis refers to when the tonsils (and sometimes the adenoids, too) become inflamed or infected.

When a foreign invader (either a bacteria or virus) triggers an immune response from the tonsils (thanks to specialized immune cells called M-cells), they can become inflamed and enlarged and cause tonsillitis, says James Clark, MBBCh, assistant professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

Here's what happens.

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