What Increases Your Risk

Close contact with an infected person is the main risk factor for tonsillitis. Droplets of disease-causing agents (pathogens) pass through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. You may then become infected after breathing in these droplets. Infection can also occur if pathogens get on the skin or on objects that come in contact with the mouth, nose, eyes, or other mucous membranes.

Nasal obstruction causes you to breathe through your mouth, which increases the risk of tonsillitis.

Although there is no proof that exposure to cigarette smoke can cause tonsillitis, children who live with a smoker have a higher incidence of tonsillectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove the tonsils.¹