Dr.YY's ENT Blogs

I have seen several patients coming to the hospital with alleged history of accidental entry of insect in ear. What all are the things that you can do from home?  Once an insect has entered in the ear canal, it’s intention will be to come out of that area but unfortunately it won’t be able to do so. So it makes some violent attempts to escape while inside the ear canal. During this time the patient can have ear pain, sensation of something moving in the ear, ear blocked sensation, dizziness, sometimes severe ear irritation can make the patient really anxious. There’s even a possibility that, violent attempts of the insect to escape can cause accidental damage to ear drum. In such cases there can be hearing difficulty as well. What to do when such an incident happens to you or to your relative/friend ? Never make an attempt to remove the insect alive. Also do not use any sharp instruments. First objective should be to kill the insect . If there is any ear dr...

This condition is present at birth .  Also called as Ankyloglossia . A short tight band of tissue holds the tip of tongue to the floor of mouth. It can affect how a child eats and speak. Can affect breast feeding as well. If very mild, we can wait and watch, as the child grows, mouth enlarges and the defect gets corrected by itself. If severe, can interfere health of child. Feeding will be difficult, so can lead to malnutrition. Also child can have problems at school. In severe cases, or when there's not much improvement as the child ages, surgical correction will have to be done. This is a minor procedure.  For adults or cooperative teenager or child more than 5 years, this procedure can be done even under local anaesthesia.  Procedure takes around 15-20 mins only.  For younger children or uncooperative patient, general anaesthesia will be required.  The tight band holding the tongue to floor of mouth will be cut so as to allow free movement of ton...

Ear barotrauma or Airplane ear is the clogged up or sometimes painful feeling in ears when the air pressure changes suddenly. It is one of the common health problems for people who fly. It is especially painful for babies and kids as their ears are not fully developed. This condition can also occur when we go in an elevator or drive in mountains. In water, it can happen while Scuba diving. They call it "Ear squeeze". As the diver goes deeper underwater, the middle ear is squeezed by the increasing pressure of the outside water. Middle ear is an air filled space behind the ear drum. It is connected to nasopharynx (passage behind nose and just above roof of mouth) by the eustachian tube ( a tunnel like structure connecting middle ear to area behind the nose). A functional eustachian tube helps in maintaining the middle ear pressure equal to that of the surrounding atmospheric pressure. If due to any reason, if the eustachian tube is not functional or when we ascen...