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A chronic cough is a cough that lasts eight weeks or longer in adults, or four weeks in children. A chronic cough is more than just annoying. It can interrupt your sleep and leave you feeling very tired. Severe cases of chronic cough can cause vomiting and lightheadedness, and even break a rib.
A chronic dry cough can linger as a symptom of an upper respiratory infection that continues after the disease clears. However, coughs that last longer than eight weeks are typically caused by an underlying medical condition.
An ongoing dry cough can seriously impact your day-to-day life, especially if it’s worse at night. Keep reading to learn more about the possible causes of a dry cough and ways to find relief.
It's common to have a cough for weeks after an upper respiratory infection. When a cough lasts six weeks or longer, doctors may order a chest x-ray to check for an underlying lung problem. Chronic coughing also can result from medications, postnasal drip, acid reflux, or asthma.
A persistent dry cough is common after having an upper respiratory infection like a cold or the flu. It will typically go away on its own. A dry cough that lingers may have an underlying cause that requires additional treatment.
A dry cough is a type of cough that does not produce phlegm. Here, learn about the various causes, including COVID-19 and asthma, and how to treat them.
Often, an irritating dry cough will go away when you identify and treat the underlying condition. You can use home remedies to soothe dry coughs that develop after a respiratory illness like a cold. Coughing can inflame lungs and air passages, leading to chest tightness.
Reasons why your cough persists (conditions that cause chronic cough) and what you may be doing to impede healing.
Although a routine chest X-ray won't reveal the most common reasons for a cough — postnasal drip, acid reflux, tobacco use or asthma — it may be used to check for lung cancer, pneumonia and other lung diseases. An X-ray of your sinuses may reveal evidence of a sinus infection. Computerized tomography scans. These scans also are called CT scans.
When a dry cough occurs as a sign of an underlying condition, it must be identified and treated to resolve the cough. Contact your healthcare provider if you have a dry cough that persists longer than three weeks or fails to improve with home treatment.