Medicheck Multispeciality Hospital

Chronic sinusitis is a common condition in which the cavities around nasal passages become inflamed and swollen for at least 12 weeks. You may refer to an allergist or an ear, nose and throat specialist for evaluation and treatment.

If you are experiencing pain, irritation, or itchiness in your throat, the condition is referred to as a sore throat. It is likely for you to face difficulty in swallowing food and the pain worsens when you want to swallow. The primary symptom of a sore throat is throat pain. People of all ages can get affected by a sore throat.

Causes
There are several causes of a sore throat. The most common ones are as follows:

Viral infection

• Viral infections are the most common causes of sore throat.
• These are the infections that are caused by a virus, like the flu or cold.
• Measles, chicken pox, and croup are other viral infections that cause a sore throat.

Bacterial infection

• Several bacterial infections also lead to a sore throat.
• They may include strep throat, diphtheria, and whooping cough.

Environmental factors

• Several environmental factors also cause sore throat.
• Exposure to pollen, mold, pet dander, and several other irritants leads to postnasal drip.
• This causes throat pain and inflammation.
• Exposure to dry air, and smoking cigarettes are also common causes of a sore throat.

Diagnosis

• For the diagnosis of a sore throat, a physical examination of your throat is carried out, and your throat will be examined using a lighted instrument.
• Doctors usually look out for inflammations and white patches that indicate strep throat. Your breathing will also be checked.
• The back of your throat can be swabbed for examining samples in order to determine the virus.
• Certain blood tests may also be required to be undertaken.

Treatment

• The treatment of sore throat depends on the cause.
• In case your sore throat is caused by a bacterial infection, you will be prescribed antibiotics for killing the infectious bacteria.
• The medicines should be taken strictly according to a doctor’s prescription.
• You should complete the course of 10 days to get effective results.
• If you stop the treatment at an early stage on noticing improvements, a sore throat can recur soon.

There are certain simple home remedies which are effective for curing the most common forms of sore throat. They include:

• Gargling with warm, salted water.
• Consuming warm fluids like soup, tea, and water.
• Having throat lozenges.
• Reducing the inflammation using ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
• Avoiding exposure to allergens and irritants.

In case your sore throat is caused by a viral infection, the virus should be left to run its course. During its course, you will be prescribed medicines like pain relievers and decongestants for relieving the symptoms. Antiviral drugs are also used in some cases for fighting the virus effectively.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Do you snore too much while you sleep? Does your snoring give others a hard time? Snoring is caused because of the vibration of soft tissues and muscles that make up your upper airways. Working out these muscles help in the management of snoring. These soft tissues and muscles stay floppy when you are snoring. The tightening of these muscles helps in reducing the level of floppiness, which results in reduced snoring. There are several simple mouth exercises that are considered to be effective in dealing with snoring. Several researches and experiments have been carried out in order to prove the effectiveness of these exercises in controlling snoring.

The most important and common mouth exercises that help stop your snoring are as follows:

1. The tongue slide
   • You have to push the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, or the hard palate.
   • After this, you simply should slide your tongue backwards. You should repeat this around 20 times.
2. The roof smash
   • In order to practice this exercise, you need to turn your tongue in the upwards directions, and press the whole tongue against flush with the hard palate.
   • This should be repeated 20 times.
3. Tongue carpet
   • You have to force the underside of your tongue against the floor of your mouth.
   • Along with this, you need to keep the tip of your tongue in contact with the bottom part of your front teeth.
4. Say aah!
   • You need to lift your soft palate, at the back of your mouth’s roof and uvula, similar to how you open your mouth during a throat inspection.
5. The cheek push
   • You need to insert your right index finger into the mouth, while pressing the inside of your finger against your left cheek’s length.
   • You should engage your cheek muscle and try to return the pressure back on your finger.
   • This should be repeated 10 times on each side.
6. Even chewing
   • It is important for you to chew evenly even you eat any form of food.
   • You should alternate both sides of your mouth while chewing and swallowing food.

Similar to any form of exercise, you need to practice these mouth exercises on a regular basis to gain benefits and observe positive results. Unless you practice them strictly and continuously, you may not experience any change in your snoring patterns and intensity. You should try incorporating these exercises into your daily schedule. You may do a set after brushing your teeth, or during evening commutes.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Dizziness is now a very common problem among the adults. Maybe people do not take this to be a serious problem in many of the cases, but repeated feeling of dizziness may lead them to visit a doctor. When in the case of such situation, you visit a general physician, not knowing the causes of such problem; often the doctor will refer you to an ENT. There have been some reasons of why you should visit an ENT for dizziness.

Symptoms of Dizziness

Often dizziness occurs along with some other symptoms too. Some of the symptoms that are accompanied by dizziness are:

• Anxiety
• Nausea
• Buzzing noise in the ears
• Pressure in the ears and the head
• Hearing issues

Some Important Reasons for Dizziness
If you are facing dizziness on regular grounds, then it may happen that it is due to some very serious health complications that you are suffering from. Some of the problems that may cause dizziness are:
Inner ear issues,

• Issues in the central nervous system,
• Issues related to the cardiovascular system,
• Bacterial or viral infection,
• Side effects of any medicine.

Diagnosis of The Problem
Diagnosis of the problem is the most important step in case of dizziness. It is because the diagnosis is not about whether you are feeling dizzy or not, it is the diagnosis about why you are feeling dizzy. There are some tests related to balance to diagnose the cause of dizziness. To get the tests done related to balance, you need to visit an ENT because the balance system of the human body is there located in the inner ear.
Though the balance of the body is there to the inner ear, also the test of other sensory organs such as eye and brain is also done. This is because balance disorder or dizziness happens when there is a problem in the communication system of the body. One of the most important ways to diagnose balance is by doing an eye test that is known as nystagmus.

Treatment of The Problem
After several tests of various sensory organs, when the ENT expert reaches a particular result, then the treatment starts depending upon the diagnosis. Today treatment for such balance disorder or dizziness has become common. Some problems can get solved by a changed diet only while other may need the help of medicines. Again, some of the problems may get cured by doing exercises while for some; you may need the help of a physiotherapist too.

When it is about dizziness, it is surely about balance disorder due to some major problems. Balance is controlled from with the inner eye and other sensory organs also.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

A nosebleed also called epistaxis medically is normally not dangerous, but if you are old nosebleeds come with a number of risks. Treating a bloody nose incorrectly can only make it more dangerous, because of prolonged bleeding. Before we explain the ways to stop nosebleeds, let’s take a look at its causes:
Nosebleeds usually start from just inside the entrance of the nostril. But, why? Because the blood vessels here are quite fragile and are also prone to rupture easily. This is the reason why children suffer from nosebleeds so easily. Other common reasons are

1. A blocked nose due to colds
2. Picking one's nose roughly
3. Blowing one's nose
4. Injuries
5. Use of cocaine

A nosebleed usually lasts for about 10-20 minutes and is usually easy to treat. But in some conditions, this bleeding can be profuse and last longer like in cases of 

1. Heart failure
2. Blood clotting disorders
3. Due to 'blood thinning' medicines
4. Hypertension

Bleeding can sometimes also happen in areas further back in the nose due mostly to injuries and disorders of the nose.

Treatment
Usually, nosebleeds can be stopped using simple first aid.

1. Sitting up straight helps, especially along with tipping your head forward. It is vital that you don’t tip your head backwards as this can allow the blood to go down your throat and cause vomiting. And this can make your nosebleed worse. So, take care to spit out the blood in your mouth and not to swallow it.
2. To stop a nosebleed, pinch the soft, cartilaginous part of your nose using your thumb and forefinger. Spraying your nose with a medicated nasal spray before pinching it can help the bleeding to stop faster. Apply pressure for 10 minutes to get results. Check if your nosebleed has stopped after 10 minutes if it’s not; apply pressure for another 10 minutes. Nosebleeds usually stop after 10 to 20 minutes of pressure.
3. Use an ice pack to your nose and cheeks. This will constrict the blood vessels in the nose and stop the nosebleed.
4. Use a saline- or water-based nasal gel inside your nose to stop bleeding.
5. Remember not to blow your nose or insert anything into your nose for at least 12 hours after your nosebleed is over.
6. If the bleeding doesn’t stop even after 20 minutes of applying direct pressure, it’s prudent to rush to a doctor. He will treat your nose to stop the bleeding.
7. In a few rare cases, the bleeding is so severe that a blood transfusion is needed, and surgery may be needed to stop it.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!