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…

11/24/2018 0

Continue Reading

Some Facts About Q-Tips and Ears

In this week's episode of " Girls " (Season 2; Episode 9 "Girls Gets Dark"), Hannah grappling with OCD, inserted a Q-tip deep into her ear canal and "heard air hiss out the hole" due to perforating her eardrum . Although this scene came out of a TV show, this scenario is not uncommon and results in many ENT office visits every month for not only eardrum perforations , but bleeding due to trauma to the ear canal skin. Some facts about Q-tips as it rela…

3/17/2013 1

Continue Reading

Lithium Disc Battery Danger for Kids (and Hot Dogs)

In the last 10 years, 13 deaths related to swallowed batteries have been reported, 12 of which were due to disc batteries (20 millimeter lithium cells). The danger is that when a disc battery is inserted into a nose (for example), a localized electric current is created between the positive and negative poles of the battery within the nose. This electric current basically "electrocutes" the lining inside the nose leading to tissue damage and ultimately necrosis (tissue death) wi…

7/03/2012 0

Continue Reading

Why Does the Nose Whistle in Some People?

Though most people like the professional nose whistler shown here require an instrument to enable the nose to whistle, in others it occurs naturally due to unique anatomic features within the nose. Why might someone's nose whistle? Septal Perforation The most common reason it may occur constantly is due to a hole in the septum (septal perforation). The septum is a wall that divides the right nasal cavity from the left side. Normally, it should be straight and without any openings. R…

10/30/2011 1

Continue Reading

ENT Problem at the Biblical Wall of Jericho

Many people may be aware of the Sunday School story regarding the Wall of Jericho in the Bible. In this story, seven priests blew 7 trumpets of rams' horns resulting in the collapse of the wall of Jericho (Joshua 6:4-5) allowing the Israelites to conquer the city. "4: And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. 5: And it shall come to pass, tha…

12/31/2010 0

Continue Reading

Being a Hairdresser Can Destroy Your Nose!

On Oct 14, 2010, there was a story out of England about a hairdresser whose nose slowly collapsed due to damage sustained from breathing in hair clippings for 35 years. Apparently, over a period of 20 years, the small hair clippings slowly caused damage to her septum to the point it caused a perforation. The perforation than led to infection which further weakened her nose structure to the point it started to collapse... a type of nasal deformity called a saddle nose. Of course, it just …

10/19/2010 0

Continue Reading