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What Do Swollen Tonsils Mean?

Posted on November 29, 2022November 29, 2022 by Breathe Clear Institute

Causes Of Swollen Tonsils

Tonsils are an important part of your body. It plays a vital role in protecting your body from germs. Due to that, most causes of swollen tonsils (Tonsillitis) is caused by a viral infection or bacteria infection. Viruses like the influenza virsus or strep throat can cause tonsillitis.

Children are much more vulnerable to tonsillitis than adults. The enviornments they are in (schools, and daycares) are usually filled with germs that can affect their immune system. This condition is contagious so it’s easy to catch it from someone else.

Other Symptoms of Tonsillitis

Swollen tonsils are unfortunately paired with other uncomfortable and painful symptoms. Tonsillitis is usually paired with a sore, scratchy throat, which means loss of voice. You may also experience painful swallowing and ear infections. Coughing, headaches, high fevers, and pain in the neck are other symptoms you might suffer from. A loss of appetite and bad breath are also associated with swollen tonsils.

Home remedies for swollen tonsils

In severe cases, surgery is an option. Our doctors would perform a tonsillectomy to remove the tonsils to relieve the patient of pain. But, doctors are suggesting other treatments for treating the infection if it’s less severe. For healthy children, the infection will usually go away on its own in less than 10 days. If the infection and fever persists, seeing a doctor is best.

Treatment also depends on the cause of the infection. Bacterial infections may require antibiotics prescribed by a doctor.

The good news is, there are plenty of home remedies that ease the symptoms as your body is fighting a viral infection. Here are a few you can try:

Drinking warm liquids: Like treating any cold, drinking tea and soup can help. If they contain ingredients like honey, it can help relieve irritation in the throat.

Avoiding hard foods: When dealing with swollen tonsils, it’s important that you don’t further irritate the throat. Avoiding hard foods like apples and crackers is important to not make the swelling worse. Avoid solids and stick to softer foods like Jell-O, mashed potatoes and more.

Using a humidifier or taking a hot shower: Inhaling warm steam is one way to help relieve the painful symptoms of a dry throat.

Eating cold foods: As mentioned earlier, it’s best to avoid hard foods and stick with softer foods. Did we also mention cold foods can also help? Treat yourself to ice cream and frozen yogurt to help numb the throat and give you temporary relief from a sore throat.

Vocal rest: With swollen tonsils your throat is sore and sensitive, which means you don’t want to further strain your throat by speaking. It’s important that you give your vocal cords rest.

Medicine: There’s a lot you can use to ease the pain. Ibuprofen can help alleviate throat pain and reduce fevers. You can also use throat lozenges or throat sprays daily to help numb your throat.

Gargling with saltwater: Doing this daily can help soothe throat pain. Add a quarter teaspoon of salt to eight ounces of warm water. Gargle for a few seconds before spitting it out.

Seeing a doctor

Dealing with swollen tonsils is a painful thing for you and your children to deal with. At Breathe Clear Institute, we can help treat the swelling and get you back to feeling your best.

Make an appointment with Breathe Clear Institute today

Our Throat Doctor & Specialists can help diagnose and treat your throat problems, such as swollen tonsils. By meeting with us, we can help determine whether you need surgery or other treatments.

Managing hearing loss

Posted on February 10, 2022May 9, 2022 by Breathe Clear Institute

What causes hearing loss

Hearing loss faces many Americans and it can be a very daunting thing to deal with, but there are ways to help improve your hearing and treat loss before hearing is entirely gone. While we might associate hearing loss with aging, people of all ages and demographics suffer from it. Hearing loss may come from an accident, overexposure to loud noise, sinus issues, genetic predispositions or disease, so treatment will vary. It’s important to determine the type of hearing loss a person is experiencing before moving forward with treatment.

Types of hearing loss

Conductive: usually temporary and caused by various conditions in the outer or middle ear, typically created when sound can’t reach the inner ear because of an obstruction. This type of hearing loss occurs due to earwax buildup, chronic ear infections, excess fluids in the ear, foreign objects, a blown eardrum, and other treatable ear-related dysfunctions.
Sensorineural: a common and usually permanent type of hearing loss due to damage of the inner ear. Head trauma, exposure to severely loud noise, various ear-related diseases, family history, and hearing loss due to aging all fall within this category.
Mixed: a combination of factors from both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss, like an ear infection on top of aging for example.

How to treat hearing loss

Hearing loss is important to treat because it can greatly impact everyday life from not being able to communicate properly or not hear warnings that impact safety. A decline in hearing causes physical and psychological issues in people of all ages. Depending on what is causing hearing loss, there are many different ways to treat it.

Age-related hearing loss is the most common form of hearing loss and affects most people over the age of 75. With the guidance of one of our experts, people in this bracket can shop for different hearing aids and cochlear implants. Hearing aids can be worn in one or both ears and on the inside or outside of the ear, depending on the patient. If the severity of the loss goes beyond hearing aids, a cochlear implant is often the next course of action. Implants do, however, require surgery.

There are also ways to strengthen your hearing with auditory training and rehabilitation, which can be done at home or with the help of a professional. Furthermore, our technologies like television, phones, and computers often have assistive listening devices to help listeners hear better. No one wants to miss what’s being broadcasted out into the world, and there are many ways to help improve hearing at any point along the way.

Ready to improve your hearing? Schedule an appointment with Breathe Clear Institute

Hearing loss can be frustrating for you and the people around you, so we’re here to find the right course of action to improve your hearing and get back into the conversation. Whether you think it’s a temporary loss due to an incident or you feel like your hearing has been deteriorating for a while, we are ready to help.

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Could Post-Nasal Drip Make My Asthma Worse?

Posted on June 10, 2021July 12, 2021 by Breathe Clear Institute

Could Post-Nasal Drip Make My Asthma Worse?

Approximately 25 million people in the U.S. have asthma. This chronic lung condition causes inflamed airways, leading to coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Cold air, allergens, illnesses, and exercise can provoke asthma attacks. If you’re one of the millions of Americans livinga with asthma, you probably want to understand how to manage your triggers and symptoms. During cold/flu and allergy seasons, asthma sufferers may be particularly concerned about post-nasal drip. Does post-nasal drip make asthma worse? If so, what can you do about it?

What is Post-Nasal Drip?

Ever feel mucus trickling down the back of your throat? That’s post-nasal drip. When your sinuses overproduce mucus, it has nowhere to go but out. Thanks to gravity, that mucus tends to travel downward into your throat. You’ll likely feel a constant need to clear your throat or cough, as well as some mild to moderate irritation. Post-nasal drip can be a symptom of allergies, viruses, or sinus infections. Air pollutants and chemical exposure can also trigger it.

Can Post-Nasal Drip Cause Asthma?

Since post-nasal drip can make you cough and wheeze, some people may confuse these symptoms with asthma. However, just because you’re coughing, doesn’t mean you have a chronic lung disease. Asthma is more than just throat irritation; it’s a serious inflammatory condition. Schedule an appointment with an allergist to get a confirmed diagnosis.

Though no one knows the exact cause for asthma, researchers believe that genetics and environmental triggers play a role. There is no reason to believe that post-nasal drip will make someone develop asthma. However, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t connected. If you have allergic asthma, allergens can trigger post-nasal drip and asthma simultaneously. Also, post-nasal drip from allergies or infections can trigger or exacerbate asthma symptoms.

How to Manage Post-Nasal Drip

You can help your mild post-nasal drip with simple at-home remedies. Drink plenty of water and warm liquids to thin the mucus out. Honey can also soothe throat irritation. Humidifiers and hot showers do a great job of loosening mucus, but may not be the best solution for asthma sufferers (since humidity is a common asthma trigger). There are also plenty of OTC medications available to help clear mucus and manage allergy symptoms.

If your post-nasal drip is severe or is worsening your asthma symptoms, you should consider seeing a nose doctor. An ENT specialist will be able to figure out what is causing the sinus drip and offer treatments to remedy it. If you suffer from overactive nerves in your sinuses, Clarifix could be the best solution for your post-nasal drip. Immunotherapy is another potential treatment for allergy-induced sinus dripping.

Post-Nasal Drip Making Your Asthma Worse? Breathe Clear Institute Can Help

Post-nasal drip can seem like a minor issue. But for asthma sufferers, it can make life unbearable. At Breathe Clear Institute, we want to see you breathing better and living life to its fullest. Our medical professionals will treat you with a holistic approach, determined to get to the bottom of your sinus symptoms and present the right treatment plan. Relief is possible! Schedule your appointment today.

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The Medical Reasons for Your Sleeping Problems

Posted on May 20, 2019April 10, 2020 by Breathe Clear Institute

Sleeping Problems Often Have Causes

It’s common to occasionally have a bad night of sleep, or insomnia, where one tosses and turns, or even lies wide awake with anxious thoughts ruminating throughout the night. If you are having interrupted sleep like this every night, however, this is not a good thing. Constant lack of sleep can have a negative effect on your physical and mental wellbeing. While you might assume that you are just the type of person that can’t sleep, there could actually be medical causes behind your sleeping troubles. Before you watch your health and well being slowly deteriorate because of sleeping problems, talk to a health professional and see if there is a medical cause behind your issues. Here are a few things that could cause sleeping disorders.

Psychiatric Issues: Depression And Anxiety

People are often under a lot of pressure and there are tons of determining factors that vary. No matter what you are going through, you might find that you are having trouble sleeping. If you have depression, anxiety, or aren’t sure what’s going on, it can all tie in together. You might think that people with depression sleep all the time, but the opposite can also be true. If you feel like depression or anxiety might be prevalent in your life, it could affect your sleeping issues as well.

Physical Ailments

There are a lot of things that could be going on with your physical body that could cause you to stay awake, or wake up way more often than you should. You might have ulcers, for example, or a deviated septum, which causes you to snore or have sleep apnea. By diagnosing the root cause of the sleeping problem, you can fix it and go back to a more refreshed life with a full night of sleep behind you much more often.

Simple Genetics

You know that if your parents have high blood pressure, you are more likely to have it yourself. Genetics play a big role in a lot of things and that can even be the case with sleeping problems. If you remember someone in your family struggling with sleeping issues, find out more about what they had. Chances are, it could be, at least in part, similar to what you are going through.

The Effects of Aging

Aging does a lot of things to people and half of adults over the age of 65 have some kind of sleeping problem. It could be a part of the medications they take, part of aging itself, or related to ailments they may suffer from. If you are aging beyond the 65-year mark, you could have a sleeping problem that has arisen over the years to a point where you need to address it.

Getting Help With Sleeping Problems

There’s nothing quite like feeling well rested after a full night of sleep. If it’s been way too long since you’ve felt that way, you need to address your sleeping issues. Contact Breathe Clear Institute with questions about what medical conditions could be causing your problems and have a consultation to go beyond that and diagnose the issue. The sooner you know what’s behind your sleeping problem, the sooner you can work on a treatment that will get you the full night of sleep you want on a regular basis.