Fauquier ENT Blog

Showing posts with label tongue. Show all posts

March 06, 2019

What is That Bump Behind the Tongue?

Typically in young children, I often have worried parents ask me what that bump is behind the tongue. This bump kind of looks like the picture shown here. The good news is that it is NORMAL and is called the epiglottis. An epiglottis is the "throat flap" the helps prevent food and liquids from going down the wrong way. Although occasionally the epiglottis can even be seen in adults looking in the mouth, this anatomic structure is typically most easily seen in cooperative children. …

3/06/2019 0

May 31, 2018

Odactra - Under the Tongue Immunotherapy for Dust Mite Allergy

Website for Odactra The FDA formally approved Odactra , the fourth new sublingual allergy tablet to be sold in the United States that works the same way allergy shots do... but instead is dissolved under the tongue at home instead of a shot in the arm in a medical office. Odactra is specifically used in the treatment of dust mite allergy. The other sublingual immunotherapy tablets currently available include: • Ragwitek used to treat ragweed. • Oralair and Grastek are two o…

5/31/2018 0

June 05, 2016

Liquid Biopsy for Head and Neck Cancer

Liquid biopsy is when a simple blood draw is performed in order to detect cancer cells (CTC) or mutated DNA fragments (ctDNA) free floating in the bloodstream that has been shed from the cancer's primary or secondary sites. This test has been heralded as an alternative way to make a diagnosis instead of an invasive surgical biopsy whether by needle or excision. Liquid biopsy has been developed mainly for detecting cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, ovarian, lung, and melanoma. Liqu…

6/05/2016 0

August 03, 2015

How Many Basic Tastes Do We Have? Four? Five? Six? More?

As children, we all learn that there are 4 basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami (savory) was discovered in 1909, but recognized more generally since the 1980s. But there have been a number of other additional basic tastes also proposed that many may not have heard of: Calcium Fatty (Oleogustus) Metallic Heartiness or Mouthfulness Should one include taste senses due to the somatosensory system, one can potentially include these basic tastes: Pungency, spiciness, h…

8/03/2015 0

May 18, 2015

Breastfeeding Ultrasound

Although breastfeeding is something humans have provided longer than written history, it is only recently through ultrasound that we are only just discovering what actually is going on within the infant mouth. Here is a video showing the complex motion that tongue makes in order to obtain milk from the nipple. The key point is that the tongue moves both horizontally as well as vertically to achieve an effective and painless breastfeeding. Check it out here !

5/18/2015 0

May 13, 2015

World's Longest Tongue Can Reach the Eye

Adrianne Lewis is an 18 year old female who just may have the world's longest tongue... at 4 inches! Image from Adrianne's Twitter

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May 09, 2015

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

April 01, 2015

Tongue Eating Parasite That Later Becomes a Tongue Prosthetic!

The animal world is truly weird... Not sure if humans would accept this form of treatment as an option if tongue reconstruction required.

4/01/2015 0

February 01, 2015

Top 10 Myths in Diagnosing and Treating Tethered Oral Tissues (Tongue Ties and Lip Ties) in Breastfeeding Infants (Guest Blog Post by Dr. Kotlow)

Dr. Chang's Note: Dr. Kotlow is a pediatric dentist who has done much to advance the understanding of infant factors leading to breastfeeding difficulties. This is a guest blog post by Dr. Kotlow. by Lawrence Kotlow, DDS www.kiddsteeth.com "Breastfeeding and human milk are the normative standards for infant feeding and nutrition. Given the documented short- and long-term medical and neurodevelopmental advantages of breastfeeding, infant nutrition should be considered a public …

2/01/2015 1

November 17, 2014

How Much Bacteria Gets Transferred During Intimate Kissing?

Researchers in the Netherlands quantified how much bacteria gets transferred from one person to another during an intimate kiss (tongue on tongue action). What they found was that an average of 80 million bacteria gets transferred per 10 seconds of French kissing. How did they come up with this figure? Samples were obtained both before and after an intimate kiss of 10 seconds duration. One partner was than asked to consume 50 ml of a probiotic yoghurt drink which contained organisms no…

11/17/2014 0

August 19, 2014

Video on Breastfeeding Problems: Infant Factors

A new video has been uploaded to show infant factors that may lead to breastfeeding problems. Video goes over tongue tie , upper lip tie , and posterior tongue tie . Check it out!

8/19/2014 0

August 05, 2014

Ultrasound of Breastfeeding Baby

Ever wonder what breastfeeding looks like inside an infant's mouth? What does the tongue do exactly? Does it move up and down or is it more back and forth? How far does the nipple go into the mouth exactly? Well, using ultrasound , researchers were able to exactly see what happens during breastfeeding inside an infant mouth. The key learning point discovered from the ultrasound images is that milk expression is due to a vacuum created within the infant mouth that occurs from the …

8/05/2014 0

August 04, 2014

Video on Tongue Tie Treatment

A new video has been uploaded to show how tongue tie is treated. Check it out! For more information on tongue tie, click here . Even adults get tongue tie release performed due to symptoms felt secondary to an immobile tongue.

8/04/2014 0

May 11, 2014

Cure Hiccups by Pulling on the Tongue

There are many different ways to treat hiccups (otherwise known as singultus). Some of the more bizarre ways of treating hiccups include rectal massage and tongue pulling. Tongue pulling treatment is most commonly attributed to Sir William Osler (1849-1919). However, origins of tongue pulling can be found in much earlier French references including Jean Laborde (1830-1903), Jean Viaud (1862-1946), and Raphaël Lépine (1840-1919). It is hypothesized to work by stimulating the vagus nerve…

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April 18, 2014

FDA Approves Ragwitek... Ragweed Allergy Tablet by Mouth (Instead of Allergy Shots)

The FDA formally approved Ragwitek, the third new sublingual allergy tablet to be sold in the United States this year that works the same way allergy shots do... but instead is dissolved under the tongue at home instead of a shot in the arm in a medical office. Ragwitek is the first sublingual allergy tablet to treat ragweed. Although Oralair and Grastek are two other sublingual tablets that have already been approved by the FDA, they treat grass allergies rather than ragweed. Ragwi…

4/18/2014 0

April 16, 2014

FDA Approves Grastek... Grass Allergy Tablet by Mouth (Instead of Allergy Shots)

Today, the FDA formally approved Grastek, the second new sublingual allergy tablet to be sold in the United States that works the same way allergy shots do... but instead is dissolved under the tongue at home instead of a shot in the arm in a medical office. Although this tablet has been available in Europe for some time, only now has sale/distribution in the United States been allowed under prescription. Just 2 weeks ago, FDA approved Oralair which also treats grass allergies. Grast…

4/16/2014 0

April 02, 2014

FDA Approves Oralair... Grass Allergy Tablet by Mouth (Instead of Allergy Shots)

Today, the FDA formally approved Oralair, the first new sublingual allergy tablet to be sold in the United States that works the same way allergy shots do... but instead is dissolved under the tongue at home instead of a shot in the arm in a medical office. Although this tablet has been available in Europe for some time, only now has sale/distribution in the United States been allowed under prescription. Oralair is made by a French pharmaceutical company Stallergenes ( Greer is US dis…

4/02/2014 0

March 30, 2014

Man Files $15 million Lawsuit Against NYC Citi Bike Claiming Smell Loss From Bike Crash

Image by Pharos of Wikipedia In 2013, a man rented a bicycle from New York City's Citi Bike program. Apparently while riding this rental bike, the front wheel struck a wheelstop installed near a bicycle docking station which the man did not notice, flipping him resulting in head trauma. This head trauma resulted in permanent smell and taste loss. [ link ] The wheelstop is meant to prevent cars from from backing into bike stations, but the lawsuit alleges "no cones or colored wa…

3/30/2014 0

February 08, 2014

What Does a Kiss Look Like from INSIDE the Mouth? [VIDEO]

Image from Wikipedia A kiss is beautiful to behold and even better to give/receive... but it may be a matter of perspective, because what a kiss looks like from the inside is downright disconcerting. Check out this YouTube video ... On that note, I'm curious to know what kind of camera was used given it must have been tiny, and focus was unusually good given the varying focal length.

2/08/2014 0

February 05, 2014

Man Sues ENT for Wrongful Tracheostomy

Image from ParaMedicine101 In December 2012, a West Virginia man suffered angioedema causing tongue swelling due to a not uncommon reaction from lisinopril . Presumably due to airway concern from the tongue swelling, an urgent tracheostomy (cutting a hole in the throat) was performed. The patient later filed suit against the ENT who performed the tracheostomy stating that it was unnecessary as the tongue swelling was getting better. [ link ] Although a tracheostomy is not always perf…

2/05/2014 0

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