Well, my two cents worth (ok--50 cents worth, *lol*)--I did have something sorta like that although not so severe and not such a quick onset. Mine turned out to be a thyroid problem, but I don't think it's your problem I'd say probably some sort of infection--maybe bacteria--there are different forms of strep--so maybe it's one that doesn't hurt as much, but most of us do have little pockets of infection (cavitations) that are around but usually not in some of the teeth. Sounds like you had one of those flare up, which might mean a number of things--the primary one being some how your immune system got over stressed and got too busy to keep those little buggers in check.

Since I'm very much a supporter of awareness that we all have a huge and growing presence of parasites in our bodies, my guess is you might have picked up some new parasite while on vacation and your body was busy trying to deal with that so slacked off abit on the cavitations. And those parasites might have been carrying some sort of infection (they usually do) which jumped ship right into your throat. The parasites could have actually settled there too, if conditions were right.

But if you don't want the pharmaceutical poison version of 'antibiotic', my go-to herb for that is goldenseal root--if you can stand the taste (a lot like grass) I'd say make a tea with it (they do sell it loose leaf style as well as caps) and gargle it as you drink it. If not, then the caps will work too, although maybe not as quickly. Plus, since it does kill all bacteria very effectively, you'll want to replenish your good bacteria right away to keep the bad bacteria in check better. I take a good probiotic, but you can get them from the live culture yogurt too, and more cheaply.

Make sure to take ANY herb with hot liquid though or a cayenne pepper capsule, because most folk can't metabolize herbs without that boost. I think that's why so many people don't think herbs work as well as big pharma's concoctions, because their bodies just couldn't metabolize them.

If that doesn't help, it's probably a fungal infection in your throat--they're becoming a lot more common. And the parasites are infected with them too, as I discovered treating my liver tumor, which actually was just a nasty fungal infection that kept reinfecting because it was also living in the parasites since I'd slacked off on zapping for a couple years, thinking anti parasite herbs should be enough.

Obviously not--cuz as soon as I started zapping again and taking the anti-fungal herb the pain stopped overnite--and the tumor just started shrinking and shrinking until it was gone--with only being treated like any other parasite infestation and fungal infection. Fungus is harder to kill than bacteria, I've found, so you have to be as persistent and regular in your fighting it as you can. With bacteria, I found you can miss a dose or two of the herbs and your body can still keep fighting it, but fungus, not so much so it flares back up more quickly.

So my go to herb for fungus is olive leaf extract. It's whacked a couple of annoying stubborn fungal infections effectively along the way for me. Of course there are many different herbs for both of those types of infections, so if those aren't really doing the trick, try a different one--mother nature is great--she developed herbs for everything for wherever you lived, so there are lots!

Of course, the parasites would still be there, ready to cause reinfection, but that's a whole other process--maybe one you'll want to address when you get tired of stamping out all these health brush fires. I've been deparsiting for 15 years or so, and it's taken years for my body to recover from the parasite damage, but I'm finally at the point where I rarely have a brush fire any more--the cancer fungus being the last real health problem I have had.

Anyway--good luck! Let me know how it goes. I don't think it sounds like a virus, but if those two don't seem to touch it, echinacea purpurea works against virus pretty good I've found. I don't however have any kind of 'medicial' training so understand I speak only from my and my friend's successful experiences. I think it's to my benefit actually that my double masters in in systems counseling (not one supported by the 'elites') so I didn't get the brainwashing those folks do--instead I learned to examine systems and results; a far better measure of effectiveness than doing it by rote as the medical training teaches.