Tonsillitis – Conditions

Transcript

There’s a condition we call obstructive sleep apnea. That is where a patient snores, typically a child, and as a result of the storing, there’s an indication that there may be a stoppage of breathing. That can result in what we call ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. What happens is that the child is not sleeping well as a result of having enlarged tonsils, as well as adenoids. What are adenoids? Adenoids are similar to tonsillar tissue, but they sit in the back of the nose and can obstruct the nose as well. Once again, your ear, nose and throat doctor will be able to differentiate that. In certain patients who are having difficulty with regards to sleeping at night due to hypertrophy tonsils, that is enlarged tonsils, sometimes we’ll recommend what we call a coblation tonsillectomy. There’s a difference between a coblation tonsillectomy and a regular tonsillectomy. In a regular tonsillectomy, we’ll remove the entire tonsil, but in a coblation tonsillectomy, we’ll remove just a portion of the tissue leaving the natural tonsil intact. Now in children, the tonsils have some immune function. In adults, that’s not the case – because in children, they develop a maturation of the bone rarer. And so the tonsils are no longer functional in terms of protecting a child from getting an infection. Now, children who do have tonsilectomies are no more likely to get sick than children who have their tonsils intact. As far as the tonsils being enlarged and doing coblation tonsillectomy, there’s a much quicker recovery for those patients and there’s an immediate improvement, meaning that your child within a matter of days will show no signs of snoring whatsoever.