Psoriasis Improves After Tonsillectomy

Image by Bobjgalindo in Wikipedia It is felt that certain skin psoriasis conditions may improve if not completely resolve after tonsillectomy . The psoriasis could be anywhere on the body and is hypothesized to be triggered by an abnormal immunological response to streptococcus, an organism commonly found in tonsillitis as well as strep throat. The exact mechanism is unclear but several studies performed over the years found potential benefit, especially for guttate psoriasis and even t…

12/04/2016 0

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Surgical Treatment of Noise Hypersensitivity

Noise hypersensitivity or hyperacusis is when sounds are painfully uncomfortable for the patient. Hyperacusis may be a symptom of a medical condition like migraine headaches , a structural anomaly like superior semicircular canal dehiscence or perilymphatic fistula, or recruitment phenomenon due to nerve hearing loss , but sometimes there is no obvious reason for it. It just is and there's no obvious etiology nor medical treatment for it. Such patients become socially withdrawn because no…

10/01/2016 2

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Mouth Taping to Treat Snoring and Dry Mouth

A patient brought to my attention a Buteyko breathing method that involves taping the mouth shut before going to sleep to prevent mouth-opening and mouth-breathing. By preventing the mouth from opening while sleeping, it can prevent the mouth from drying out as well as decrease not only snoring intensity but also reduce  sleep apnea severity. This technique of mouth taping does work based on small studies. A  2015 study  found that snoring and sleep apnea scores improved significantly wi…

5/25/2016 1

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Treatment of Gleeking

Gleeking is when an individual is able to squirt spit out of the mouth causing amazement if not disgust from surrounding people. This salivary spray comes out from Wharton's duct which is an opening located under the tongue tip that drains the  submandibular glands  located under the jawline (black arrows in pic). This duct opening normally is about 0.5mm in diameter... very small! The channel that carries saliva to this opening is about 4mm in size. However, in individuals who have a t…

11/12/2015 0

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Tongue and Mouth Exercises May Help Reduce Snoring

Snoring is a very common problem for which there is no easy quick fix. There are many possible treatments, but all too often, it only helps a certain percentage of folks and not others. The reason why is because snoring could come from many possible anatomic sources whether nose, palate, uvula, tongue, cheek, epiglottis, etc. So what causes one person's snore may not necessarily be what causes the snore in another person. Brazilian researchers have at least come up with a set of tongue…

5/09/2015 1

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Removal of "Small" Tonsils Can Still Significantly Improve/Cure OSA

At least in kids... A Johns Hopkins study published in May 2015 suggests that tonsil size does NOT appear to correlate with  obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)  severity and degree of response to T&A surgery . Regardless of the tonsil size even if they are small, improvement in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs based on pre- and post-operative sleep studies. These findings seem counter-intuitive since one would think that the larger the tonsils, the more severe the OSA and the grea…

5/07/2015 0

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