# When and why did tonsillectomies stop being routinely done on kids? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659 "2018-03-16T13:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/21 "2018-03-16T16:11:30Z")
In the UK tonsillectomies are rare. I was always told that this is because the operation is riskier than the cure. I can’t find any evidence to confirm this. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/22 "2018-03-16T16:11:54Z")
I had mine out when I was six years old in 1943 and it was done routinely. They sweetened the pot by promising ice cream after. It did soothe the sore throat. I have the impression that it was just a reluctance to put kids under general anesthetic. Like any such procedure there were very rare deaths. When I had to have my appendix out in 1950, they did it under local (spinal). None of my kids ever had it done. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/23 "2018-03-16T16:12:18Z")
In first grade (1966) I missed so days due to multiple bouts on bronchitis that technically I was not supposed be promoted to second grade (fortunately it was a Catholic school, and the principal/Mother Superior could do whatever she damned well pleased and fudged the record since I had the highest grades in the class of 64). Over the summer I had my tonsils out and had perfect attendance in second grade. My wife (same age), in a different state and obviously with different doctors, had a pediatrician who did not believe in tonsillectomies and still has hers. She also has frequently recurring sinusitis (3-4 times per year), not sure if there is any connection. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/24 "2018-03-16T16:14:41Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > They sweetened the pot by promising ice cream after. It did soothe the sore throat. I remember having as much ice cream as I wanted. Plus I got a Lego set, so I felt it was worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/25 "2018-03-16T16:23:28Z")
The pro side of tonsillectomy involves patients with repeated tonsillitis and breathing impairment which can be fixed by removing the offending organs. The negative has to do with pain, surgical risks, post-op infection and not so much with long-term greater susceptibility to infection, though there’s some evidence that those who’ve had tonsils removed are more prone to [deep neck infections](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4388732/). I am happy to say I still have tonsils and the rest of my original equipment, although that’s akin to a vintage Chevy with all-original parts. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/26 "2018-03-16T16:34:32Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > … > A couple of years go (give or take), the medical establishment, without much fanfare, lowered the AD1 test level considered indicative of Type II Diabetes. By doing so, they were able to justify putting a whole bunch more people on drugs. … Factual correction: the test is called A1c. And the threshold guidelines have just been raised again. This has been an illuminating discussion. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/27 "2018-03-16T16:47:00Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I personally was a part of this second wave. I was born in 1966 and should have had my tonsils taken out in the 70s, but my doctor was reluctant to do so and I had constant problems with throat infections. Finally as an adult I went to a different doctor and had them removed, and my health improved quite a bit as a result. > > So, late 60s to early 70s is probably where the shift occurred. By the 80s they realized that they needed to take tonsils out more often than they had been in the 70s, but they never went back to just taking them out at the drop of a hat like they had been doing originally. > > At least that’s my experience with it, in the West Virginia area. The timeline may be shifted a bit for other areas. I was born in 1959, also in West Virginia, and my experience was pretty much the same. Annual or more hospitalizations for runaway tonsillitis, until my parents finally took me to a different doctor when I was around twelve, and I had both the tonsils and adenoids removed. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/28 "2018-03-16T16:54:40Z")
What the reason **should** be - and actually I think in most cases it **is** being done properly - is that the patient and the doctor consider the risks and the benefits, and do what will be best overall. Overall, the change in how often the answer is “take them out” comes from the fact that now we have access to the huge data sample created when people were getting them out more often. In hindsight, we can see exactly how it did or didn’t improve the lives of all those patients, and we take that into account. Plus the fact that different treatments are developed or discovered over time. OK, I admit that’s the rosy idealistic picture, and of course there are hasty decisions, and of course there are decisions made for the wrong reasons. But overall, we have to hope that “study the statistics, and weigh the risks and benefits” wins out. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/29 "2018-03-16T17:03:01Z")
One obvious problem with this very good method: if the statistics are not kept carefully enough, or if something important didn’t get recorded because we never knew it was important. Like they used to say about computers - garbage in, garbage out. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/30 "2018-03-16T17:10:36Z")
I had mine out when I was about 5 (this would have been in the early '80s.) I was having frequent middle ear infections and subsisting on a steady diet of amoxicillin for a while. Septra for the stubborn ones; hated the incredibly bitter taste of that one. once they yoinked my tonsils and adenoids, no more ear infections. however, within the next 10-15 years is when that seems to have stopped being standard practice. my younger cousins with ear infection issues got the “tubes” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/31 "2018-03-16T18:00:24Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I had mine out in 1958 when I was 10, along with something called my “adenoids”-- what the heck are those? The overnight experience was not a good one… 1964-ish/5-6-year-old-ish. First hospital stay and scared shitless. My Dad: “What did one tonsil say to the other?” “Get dressed honey, we’re going out tonight.” God bless my Dad. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/32 "2018-03-16T18:25:43Z")
I had mine out at 18, and to be honest, I don’t \*remember \*having more instances of sore throat than the average bear. I had terrible earaches as a child but I must have outgrown whatever caused that. In any event, I ended up at an ENT doc and he said they should come out and that was that. Holy cow, the recovery hurt a gajillion times worse than any sore throat I’ve ever experienced (though I’d take it over an earache any day). On a side note - and I think I might have shared this before - when I went in for some kind of pre op exam / blood test or whatever, the doctor did a full breast exam on me:eek: It seemed . . . weird, but I was young and naive and also unaccompanied by any adult. I remember telling my mother about it, years later and apropos of nothing, and she about flipped her lid. I think if I’d have said something at the time she would have killed him. Or sued. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/33 "2018-03-16T18:40:23Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > … > On a side note - and I think I might have shared this before - when I went in for some kind of pre op exam / blood test or whatever, the doctor did a full breast exam on me:eek: It seemed . . . weird, but I was young and naive and also unaccompanied by any adult. I remember telling my mother about it, years later and apropos of nothing, and she about flipped her lid. I think if I’d have said something at the time she would have killed him. Or sued. Damn! That bastard! I wonder how much of that sort of thing went on that we, as young people, didn’t know was inappropriate. I wish your mom had removed his tonsils. :mad: Haven’t crossed paths with you in a while, my friend. 🙂 Glad to see you in my thread. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/34 "2018-03-16T18:44:54Z")
my brother had tonsillitis off and on for years and the doctors refused to take them out saying they were beneficial to helping avoid throat problems I think throat cancer was mentioned which was little comfort to my brother when it felt like his throat was on fire … ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/35 "2018-03-16T19:04:00Z")
As most Europeans of my age (I’m going on 51!) I remember as a kid reading American stories with references to “tonsils” and the ectomy thereof. Much as the “circumcision”, I always gathered it as one of those peculiar tribal rituals they have in those foreign lands… ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/36 "2018-03-16T19:58:33Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Hmm. I never had mine out. And last year I had a tumor on my left tonsil. Apparently surgery wasn’t recommended as treatment. But I do wonder if it would have been better than chemo and radiation. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Is that kind of an unusual place to get a tumor? Smoker? Chawin’ tobaccy? Didn’t drink enough hooch to drown it? I’m intrigued. > > BTW, I’ve had mine out three times (bad doctoring the first two), adenoids four (?). Until today, I didn’t know it had anything to do with ear infections, which I had many as a tot. Pretty common place for oropharyngeal cancer. Very good place for cancer to hide- many occult tumors found there (by biopsies looking for tumor in people with cancerous neck nodes). The Radiation-Chemotherapy protocols developed over the past 30 years have revolutionized treatment of head and neck cancer. Good outcomes with less morbidity and disfigurement. The advent of robotic assisted surgery may start to swing the pendulum back to surgery for some cases. P.S.- Hooch is more likely to cause cancer than drown it. Human Pappilloma Virus (HPV) is ever more commonly recognized as a cause of oropharyngeal cancer- fortunately it responds a bit better to treatment, although there is still no "good ’ cancer to get. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/37 "2018-03-16T21:22:19Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I had mine out when I was about 5 (this would have been in the early '80s.) I was having frequent middle ear infections and subsisting on a steady diet of amoxicillin for a while. Septra for the stubborn ones; hated the incredibly bitter taste of that one. > > once they yoinked my tonsils and adenoids, no more ear infections. > > however, within the next 10-15 years is when that seems to have stopped being standard practice. my younger cousins with ear infection issues got the “tubes” instead. My daughter got tubes in 1985 or so, and the problem went away. No one even mentioned the tonsils. I grew up in the 50s, and tonsils got yanked on a routine basis. My brother got his out, and he was not frequently sick. Neither was I, but I was scheduled for it. I got sick just before the date of the operation and my mother decided that this was a sign I shouldn’t go through the operation. I’ve never had a problem. My wife’s aunt was a nurse, and the first operation she assisted in was a tonsillectomy where the patient died. No way in hell was she going to let my wife have one. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/38 "2018-03-16T21:26:57Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > … > My wife’s aunt was a nurse, and the first operation she assisted in was a tonsillectomy where the patient died. No way in hell was she going to let my wife have one. :eek: Oh god. How absolutely awful. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/39 "2018-03-16T21:52:49Z")
I was six years old when my tonsils and adenoids were taken out. I hemorrhaged, I recall it being the only time I saw my dad look scared. Anyway, later in my teens when I had my wisdom teeth removed I remember my parents had to be assured many times by the oral surgeon that I’d be fine having the procedure done in his office and the hospital was across the street if necessary. They thought I should’ve been hospitalized for it, I wasn’t and I was fine, but it speaks to me of how scared they were especially since older siblings had been through the wisdom teeth procedure. I was little and recall being a bit freaked but it took a toll on them. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659/40 "2018-03-17T00:18:08Z")
My brother had tonsillitis a lot and so his tonsils were removed sometime around 1971 while we were living in the UK. I recall being quite jealous, because they said he’d get to eat nothing but ice cream for several days. I think he did, too. Still got mine. When I was little someone told me that tonsils served as hooks to catch germs before they got into your system, so for YEARS I thought tonsils were like these weird rose-thorn shaped hooks in the back of the throat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-tonsillectomies-stop-being-routinely-done-on-kids/810659.md?page=3)