How long is a suitable time to monitor a sore throat before going to the doctor?

Sore throat: If due to Streptococcus pyogenes then therapy given in the first 2 days may help to modulate symptoms, but most treatment of this is to prevent the later onset of post-streptococcal rheumatic fever. If you wait beyond the first 2 days your throat culture or strep tests will still show the infection but you will have lost any benefit provided by antibiotics. If not strep throat it does not matter.