Parents Guide to ENT Issues and Concerns: Tips and Ideas

Sinuses can become aggravated due to several reasons so it is unsurprising that a good number of the population will contend with this problem at one time or another. Additionally, the severity of the discomfort will vary from one person to the next. Some individuals that suffer from occasional sinusitis may be able to relieve their symptoms with over the counter medications such as antihistamines or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

In severe cases, though, you may need sinus surgery. An ENT doctor would be best placed to diagnose the cause of your sinusitis and determine if surgery would be the best way to cure this issue. Read on for a couple of conditions that would necessitate sinus surgery.

The growth of nasal polyps

Nasal polyps, as the name suggests, are noncancerous growths that present on one's sinuses and nasal passages. These growths come about due to various reasons. Most commonly, they will grow when one suffers from respiratory illnesses that agitate the sinuses and the nasal passages but they can also affect you if you have been battling hay fever or allergies for a prolonged period. If the polyps are tiny, they likely will not affect your quality of life so most people only notice their presence one they become larger. The bigger the nasal polyps are, the more they block your nasal passages and this leads to issues with breathing, gradual loss of your sense of smell and so on.

It is imperative to pay a visit to an ENT specialist so that they can perform a physical exam to establish the extent of the nasal polyps. The doctor will also prescribe additional testing in the form of a nasal endoscopy to determine the scope of the polyps as well as allergy tests to discern if these could be the cause for inflammation. A conservative course of treatment would entail a prescription of antihistamines and corticosteroids. But if the nasal polyps do not respond to medication, you would require sinus surgery to get rid of them.

The onset of sinus infections

The second reason why you would need sinus surgery is if you have developed a severe infection. If a bacterial infection is caught early, your ENT specialist will start you on a course of drugs to curb its spread, which will cure the problem. Nevertheless, if the infection is unchanged by the medications, sinus surgery would be a better course of treatment to eliminate the pain.

There are scenarios where some individuals may underrate the seriousness of their sinus infection and subsequently leave it to fester undeterred. In these instances, the bacteria could have spread into the bone. If you visit your ENT and they find that this is the extent of the sinus infection, sinus surgery would be the only cure.

For more information about sinus surgery, contract a local ENT doctor.