Treat Salivary Gland Swelling at Home with 4 Easy Steps [VIDEO]

It is not uncommon that a patient presents to an ENT office with sudden onset facial swelling due to an obstructed from a stone or infected salivary gland . The main salivary glands that afflict patients are the parotid over the cheeks and submandibular glands located under the jawline. Regardless of obstruction or infection, there are 4 simple ways to immediately start treating this condition at home. Watch the video to see what to do. Of course, if an infection is present, antibiotics…

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How Much Radiation with CT Scans of the Sinus or Neck?

Patients are often too quick to want CT scans to further evaluate their symptoms without appreciating the downsides of such exams. For ENTs, that mainly involves scans of either the Sinus or Neck. Using the website RayRisk.com , one can easily figure out how much radiation exposure occurs with not just CT scans, but all other radiological scans as well. To use as a baseline, take a regular Chest X-ray which exposes a person to 0.10 mSv of radiation. A CT Sinus scan requires ~0.7 mSv or ra…

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If a LEGO is Swallowed, How Long Does it Take to be Pooped Out?

This is one of those published research papers I had to wonder if it was for real or not... but it appears to be genuine in spite of the jocular tone of the article. Published in the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health , researchers swallowed small LEGO pieces and then monitored bowel movements to determine how long it took before it got pooped out. The general point of the study being that children often swallow toy objects and as long as it doesn't get stuck in the throat (and lack…

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Drinking Honey Reduces Throat Damage after Swallowing Button Battery

Button batteries swallowed by children cause significant damage to the lining of the throat and esophagus and has the potential to cause significant swallowing difficulties both in the short-term due to mucosal injury as well as long-term issues from scarring. Serious damage can occur within 2 hours of battery ingestion and deaths have also occurred due to button battery ingestion. As such, any intervention that can be done to minimize mucosal damage from the moment of swallow until the butto…

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Swallowed Coin Removal without Sedation Using a Foley in a Young Child

A blog subscriber recently informed me about a video showing a coin being removed blindly from a young child using only a foley catheter without any sedation. Watch video  above... This blind removal technique basically involves passing a small foley catheter through the mouth and PAST where the coin is located within the esophagus, typically behind the voicebox. The foley catheter balloon which would then be located past where the coin would be, is then inflated with a syringe. After ballo…

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Ear Tube Placement in Kids without Sedation

Our office routinely performs  traditional  ear tube placements in the office, without sedation, starting from the age of 12 years. For those younger than 12 years,  ear tube placement  typically requires general anesthesia, not for pain reasons, but because in order for the procedure to be performed safely, the child has to be totally still. However, a new device called Hummingbird TTS allows for the possibility for ear tube placement without sedation in younger kids. Why? The device allows …

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