Slow Cooker to Sterilize Many Items Against COVID-19 Quickly

I have seen a few posts on physician forums regarding heat inactivation of COVID-19 based on SARS data... Mainly that rapid inactivation occurs at low temperatures; surfaces "were converted to be non-infectious after 90-, 60- and 30-min exposure at 56 degrees Celsius, at 67 degrees Celsius, and at 75 degrees Celsius, respectively." [ link ] Based on this data, there is a cost effective way for small offices (or at home if you are concerned as you shouldn't use your home oven) …

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Limited Services and Hours at Fauquier ENT Due to COVID-19

On March 20, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery  put out a global statement to all ENT physicians to limit patient care activities to only those individuals with time-sensitive, urgent, and emergent medical conditions. As such, our office will immediately curtail services and limit clinic hours to abide by the recommendations made by our profession's governing body. All elective surgeries have already been cancelled until f…

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COVID-19 Precautions to Reduce Risk of Transmission

There are well-known basic protective measures to prevent spread of viral illnesses like COVID-19 including washing hands, stay home, avoid touching your face, maintain social distancing, cleaning surfaces routinely, etc. However, there are also some interesting reports of other interventions that may provide further protection that one may not know about. 1) Published back in 2004, researchers noted that daily saline nasal spray  (plain old saltwater) use appears to significantly prevent sy…

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Ear Piercings (How They Are Performed in a Doctor's Office)

Our office has created a new video demonstrating how ear piercings are performed. This procedure is performed both in adults as well as kids. Although ear piercings are generally performed without any sedation, it is not unusual that we also perform ear piercings while a child is sedated while undergoing another different procedure whether it be ear tubes or tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy .

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How Does Weight Loss Resolve Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

It has been a well known fact that obstructive sleep apnea severity is directly correlated with weight gain or loss in adults. It's also why physicians often recommend weight loss as one of the ways to resolve obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). What has been less clear is exactly how weight influences sleep apnea until researchers at Univ of Pennsylvania examined the upper airway with MRI scans before and after weight loss. It is tongue fat!!! Researchers recruited 67 adult individuals…

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Magnetic Fake Facial Piercings Dangerous for Kids

It is with some alarm that I have seen a few young school-age children with fake facial piercings using magnetic balls (small magnet in the mouth and the other on the face). Inevitably, kids being kids, they potentially can accidentally swallow such magnetics without understanding the grave consequences of this occurrence. The dire results would be true not just in kids, but also in adults. Such magnetic balls are being sold on Amazon , Etsy , and other stores as either an alternative to ea…

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