Dr. Ajay Kothadiya

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.

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, hence it is important to visit the ENT in this case.

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

Swimmer's ear is a medical condition, which involves inflammation, irritation or infection of the ear. It may affect the outer ear and also the ear canal. Swimmer's ear is called Otitis externa in medical terms. The condition may be acute to chronic in nature.

Causes:
Swimmer's ear is an infection that's usually caused by bacteria commonly found in water and soil. Infections caused by a fungus or a virus are less common. This condition is more common in teenagers and young adults. It may occur due to a middle ear infection or because of a respiratory infection such as cold.
Swimmer's ear can occur as a result of swimming in unclean or contaminated water. These waters contain pseudomonas and other harmful bacteria, which can lead to such ear infections. The infections are rarely caused by fungus.

Swimmer's ear may also result due to other reasons. They can be:

1. Scratching the inside or outside of the ear.
2. Having something stuck in the ear. When you clean ear wax with cotton swabs or small objects, damage may occur. Using headphone or ear plugs for a long period of time may also cause swimmer's ear.
3. Allergic reaction to some object or anything placed in the ear may also cause Swimmer's ear. These may be hair products or jewelry.
4. Some chronic skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis may also lead to this infection.

Risk factors:
There are several factors, which may enhance the risk of getting swimmer's ear. They are as follows:

1. Swimming in water, which has got elevated levels of bacteria. This includes lakes and ponds.
2. People having narrow ear canals are at a more risk of swimmer's ear.
3. Aggressive cleaning and scratching of the ear canal.

Symptoms:
The symptoms which indicate swimmer's ear are:

1. Itching of the ear canal. This becomes intense as the condition progresses.
2. Redness on the inside parts of the ear, which get more extensive in later stages.
3. Discomfort which worsens by pulling on the outer ear or pushing on the tragus of the front part of the ear.
4. Drainage of a fluid which is clear and odorless. As the condition worsens, there is excessive drainage of fluid along with the discharge of pus.
5. A fullness feeling in the ear and a partial blockage of the ear canal because of swelling and fluids.
6. In advanced stages, fever and swelling of lymph nodes in the neck is indicated. Hearing impairment may occur.

Swimmer's ear is a health condition, which involves the ear. The ear gets inflamed because of a certain bacterial infection. Although it is not a very severe condition, in some cases it can do significant harm. 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!

What is a foreign body (FB)?
Foreign body or FB is an object or piece of extraneous matter that has entered the body by accident or design. It is common to see certain items getting stuck in the ear, nose or throat especially, in young children. While most of the time they do not raise an alarm, however, sometimes they can lead to severe consequences like rupture of the eardrum or even choking.

How do FBs affect ear, nose and throat?

• Children over 9 months develop an ability to pick up objects. As they explore the environment around them, they tend to put items such as peas, beans, marbles, beads, cotton, paper, etc, in their mouth, nose or ears. A similar trend can be seen in adults with mental disorders.
• Trauma/ fall/accident can force FBs like rock, pebbles into the ear, nose or throat.
• Adults while riding a bike or sleeping on the ground (campsites) can have insects: flies, ants, roaches fly into the nose or ear.
• Choking occurs when FBs block the airway, common reasons are: not chewing the food properly, diseases like Parkinsonism, drinking alcohol or certain drugs that slowdowns the process of swallowing.

Managing FB in the ear, nose and throat

Foreign bodies in the ear
Symptoms: Pain in the ear, discharge or bleeding from the ear, feeling of fullness or pressure in the ear and dizziness and nausea in extreme cases.

Management:

• Make sure the patient is sitting in an upright position, pull the pinna or outer semicircle of the ear towards the back. This can help you see the object clearly and also loosen it to wiggle out. If you can see the object clearly, use a tweezer to grasp the object and gently remove.
• In case a live insect gets trapped inside the ear lie down and place few drops of warm vegetable or baby oil. Use oil only if symptoms of eardrum perforation like pain, bleeding/discharge from the ear is absent.
• Tilting the head to the affected side can facilitate gravity to dislodge the object.

Foreign bodies in the nose:
Symptoms: Pain and difficulty in breathing from that side of the nose.
Management: Keep the uninvolved nostril closed by pressing a finger against the side of the nose and gently ask the person to blow from the affected nostril.

Foreign bodies in the throat:
Symptoms: Choking, inability to breathe and speak 
Management: Perform Heimlich maneuver: abdominal thrusts, if trained otherwise, it is advised to call for medical help immediately.

How can you prevent foreign bodies from entering your ear, nose, throat?

• Discourage talking, playing, laughing when food is in the mouth.
• Do not give whole grapes, popcorn, nuts to children below 3 years.
• Keep small objects out of reach of small children.
• Teach children to avoid placing objects into their nose, ears.

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