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

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Pet Dog May Cause Recurrent Strep Throat

Image courtesy of alex_ugalek at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net In rare situations, strep throat infection bounces repeatedly among all family members. In such situations, the family's pet dog may be the carrier for strep that may cause such recurrent strep infections among the children and parents. See references below. Fortunately, in the vast majority of situations, the pet dog has no role in recurrent strep throat infections . Indeed, many healthcare professionals are in fact skeptical …

8/21/2016 0

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Hearing Amplifiers That Work Almost as Well as More Expensive Hearing Aids

CS50+ High End Hearing Amplifier In my last blog , I argued that hearing amplifiers are not safe to use in patients with hearing loss . In fact, such hearing amplifiers can potentially cause further hearing loss given indiscriminate amplification of sound frequencies where hearing loss may be minimal/absent. Given that caveat, there are a new breed of high-end amplifiers that approach the quality and safety of hearing aids . Such high-end hearing amplifiers typically run $300+, can be pu…

8/05/2016 0

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3D Printed Masks to Protect Athletes with Nose or Facial Fractures

Mask and Image Made by Technology in Motion Over the past few years, the medical 3D printing technology has exploded with researchers being able to print a new ear, trachea, and even the skull to implant into patients. However, a more common application of medical 3D printing technology is to create custom, form-fitting facial protection masks for athletes who have suffered from facial and/or nasal fractures . With such protection, an athlete could potentially resume play within weeks rathe…

3/09/2016 0

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Video of WHERE Snoring Comes From

A new version of an older video our office has produced has been uploaded that explains where snoring comes from. The info also applies to where obstruction comes from in patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea . This procedure is called " sleep endoscopy " or " sedated endoscopy " and is DIFFERENT from a sleep study which is performed to diagnose whether any sleep disorders are present.

9/13/2015 2

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Spit Test to Monitor for Oral Cancer

Image courtesy of marin at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net HPV oral cancer is an increasingly common cancer afflicting heterosexual individuals. The main way of diagnosing is by biopsy after an abnormal finding on oral examination . The main way of determining whether the cancer has come back after treatment is also by regular oral examinations. However, Johns Hopkins researchers may have developed a "spit" test that can detect whether oral cancer may have recurred after treatment befor…

8/23/2015 0

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Does Magnetic Stimulation Help Tinnitus? (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

Image from NeuroStar Given media exposure, there has been greater public interest in the use of powerful magnetic impulses applied to the head in order to treat tinnitus . It is hypothesized that this treatment called repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) works by temporarily disrupting abnormally hyper-excitable brain circuits within the auditory cortex and resetting it to a more "normal" baseline. At this time, rTMS is FDA approved to treat depression only, but an…

8/01/2015 0

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Blood and Spit Test that Detects Cancer of the Head and Neck

Over the years, simple blood tests have been developed to detect specific types of cancer in the human body. We have PSA for prostate cancer; BRCA for breast cancer; CEA for colon cancer... and potentially in the very near future... a blood as well as spit test for head and neck cancer! Finally! Developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins, this new blood/spit test is able to detect squamous cell carcinoma with astounding accuracy using a combination of both DNA mutations and HPV markers.  …

6/26/2015 0

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Suppressing the Gag Reflex

Given doctors often look in the mouth, the gag reflex is something that is encountered all too often. Suppressing it is even more important when testing or biopsy of an oral mass is required. But suppressing it can be a challenge. Interestingly, 1/3 of the human population lack a gag reflex. The gag reflex has both a physical as well as mental component. The physical gag reflex can be suppressed and will be discussed further here... However, the mental gag reflex (i.e., looking at vomit) …

6/12/2015 0

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Acupuncture Helps with Tonsillectomy Pain

Back in 2013, I blogged how acupuncture may help with pain after tonsillectomy in children [ link ]. This was based on a study by Dr. Ochi published in Dec 2013 on 56 children. Another study has been published in April 2015 on 59 children by a different group of researchers which support Dr. Ochi's findings as well as another in 2019 found acupuncture helpful in adults. Although no significant differences in the amount of opioid medications administered or total post-anesthesia care t…

4/13/2015 0

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Acupuncture to Treat Allergy Symptoms (Where are the Spots?)

There has been increasing number of research and even support by the AAO-HNS Clinical Practice Guideline 2015 that acupuncture may help control allergies. According to the 2015 Guideline: "STATEMENT 13. ACUPUNCTURE: Clinicians may offer acupuncture, or refer to a clinician who can offer acupuncture, for patients with AR who are interested in nonpharmacologic therapy. Option based on RCTs with limitations, observational studies with consistent effects, and a preponderance of benefit o…

2/04/2015 1

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At-Home Influenza (Flu) Testing

There are kits that can be purchased inexpensively over-the-counter to test for strep and mono . You can also add influenza (aka "the flu") to the do-it-yourself list, but unfortunately, this test kit is expensive at several hundred dollars on Amazon to perform 10-20 tests or about $20 per test. Taking about 15 minutes to perform, these flu test kits are designed to detect Influenza A (including H1N1 virus) as well as the Influenza B virus antigens in nasopharyngeal specimens …

1/24/2015 0

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At-Home Rapid Mono Testing

Rapid mono test kits  can be purchased by anybody to be done at home which may save parents/patients money in doctor visits as well as getting an answer right away. Indeed, should mono testing be positive, than you know that the patient is contagious... and that there's not much to do other than give it time to resolve. A doctor visit may still be worthwhile since there are other possible causes of a sore throat including strep throat, cancer ,  aphthous ulcer ,  sinus infection ,  reflux …

1/24/2015 1

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CEO of JPMorgan has Throat Cancer

Image from Wikipedia by Steve Jurvetson The CEO and President of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, announced that he has throat cancer and is currently undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan for the next eight weeks. According to a letter he sent to shareholders on July 1, 2014: "I wanted to let you know that I have just been diagnosed with throat cancer. The good news is that the prognosis from my doctors is excellent, the cancer was caught quickly, and …

7/02/2014 0

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Nexium is Available Over-The-Counter

Nexium , a medication to treat acid reflux , has gone over-the-counter and joins Prilosec and Prevacid as ex-prescriptions now OTC. It's available for purchase in most pharmacies and even on Amazon . Read more about how reflux medications work here .

6/15/2014 0

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Hearing Test Administered Over the Phone

I was just made aware of this service in a Washington Post article published May 16, 2014. This screening hearing test is taken over the telephone and accomplished by listening to three-digit sequences presented in a background of white noise. The test-taker has to then enter the digits using the telephone keypad. Based on accuracy of the response, the test than adjusts the next query. Normally, the cost to take this telephone hearing test is $8, but at least for the month of May 2014, it …

5/18/2014 0

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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

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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

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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

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LeBron James and His Broken Nose

LeBron James suffered a broken nose. He first broke it Feb 2014 when playing against Oklahoma City. He than got hit to the nose again (while wearing a mask) when playing against Houston in March 2014. [ link ] Regardless of whether you are an NBA player or not, treatment of most  nasal and even facial fractures  do  NOT  require surgical repair. The key elements that lead towards a decision for  facial and/or nasal fracture surgery  are the following (not all-inclusive, but general pointe…

3/07/2014 0

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