Sore throats are painful and often accompanied by other symptoms, such as fatigue or headaches. Because a sore throat often makes it painful to swallow, you may also be struggling to eat and drink. While many sore throats go away in a few days on their own, a persistent sore throat could be indicative of a bacterial infection like strep throat. In order to determine what is causing your sore throat and find relief, it's a good idea to go to your local urgent care.

Know the Signs of Strep Throat Before Going to Urgent Care

While most cases of sore throat are caused by viral infections like the flu, a severe sore throat can be caused by a bacterial infection like strep throat. It's a good idea to know the signs of strep throat before you head to urgent care. Strep throat needs to be treated with antibiotics, so if your sore throat has lasted a week or longer without going away on its own, it's more likely to be strep throat.

Strep throat is also often accompanied by severe headaches as well as visible sores in your throat. If you notice these signs, it's important to go to urgent care right away.

Urgent Care Doesn't Typically Require Appointments

Luckily, urgent care facilities don't usually require appointments. This means you can get in to see a doctor quickly and leave with a prescription or a treatment plan that will bring you relief quickly. It's always a good idea to call ahead or look up your local urgent care facility just to see what their availability is that day.

Urgent Care is Often Covered by Insurance

Another benefit of visiting urgent care for your sore throat is it's often covered by health insurance. Be sure to look up your health insurance plan to make sure. In some cases, only certain locations will be considered in-network for your insurance plan. 

If your health insurance doesn't provide coverage for urgent care, you can ask the urgent care's front desk for a cost estimate on the phone. In most cases, urgent care is very affordable even when paying out-of-pocket, especially when compared to traditional hospital visits.

As you can see, going to a local urgent care facility when you have a persistent sore throat is often a wise decision. Your urgent care doctor will help treat your sore throat so you can heal.

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