Hello, my name is Dr.Dorina Gurabardhi. I understand your concern. There are many reasons that cause painful swallowing. The most common reason that it can hurt to swallow is because of an infection. Whether a virus, fungus, or bacteria causes it, the inflammation that results from an infection will frequently make swallowing painful. So to diagnose is necessary to do an examination of the throat and a culture. Some advices that I can give to you are : -drink warm liquids, such as lemon water and tea -drink cold liquids to help numb the throat -turn on a cool-mist humidifier -taking over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen -suck on throat lozenges Hope my answer was helpful, if you have any other questions I ll be glad to help, thanks!