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March 27, 2015

Professional Singers' Vocal Issues after Thyroid Surgery

A study out of Harvard presented the typical vocal outcomes after thyroid surgery in professional singers. No other study has ever looked at this special patient population who are the Olympic athletes of the voice. Non-singers may be completely unaware of any subtle issues with the voice after thyroid surgery . However, for professional singers, even the slightest vocal quiver could be professionally unacceptable. The main issue with thyroid surgery as it pertains to the voice is that t…
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March 24, 2015

Atlanta Hawks Guard Kyle Korver Suffers Broken Nose

Image Source LeBron James suffered a broken nose early last year. This time, it's Kyle Korver's turn when he suffered the same injury March 15, 2015 after taking an offensive foul from Ed Davis. He reported that this was not his first broken nose, but his third. [ link ] Regardless of whether you are an NBA player or not, treatment of most  nasal and even facial fractures  do  NOT  require surgical repair. However, in Mr. Korver's case, he did undergo a closed nasal reduc…
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March 22, 2015

How Often Does Tongue Tie Release Improve Breastfeeding? What about Speech?

In the last blog article , we discussed the controversy around tongue tie release that exists from ancient to modern times. According to modern research, cautious support exists for tongue tie release regarding breastfeeding but not speech difficulties. So what did the research actually show? Statistically, tongue tie release improves/resolves breastfeeding problems ~80% of the time within 4 weeks, often within 48 hours. The percentage is lower if birth defects are present. Summary of the…
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March 20, 2015

Does Tongue Tie Cause Breastfeeding Difficulties and Speech Problems?

Although there is both objective and subjective evidence that tongue tie contributes to breastfeeding difficulties and speech problems, when it comes to quality evidence-based research, the data is a bit lacking. And because of this sparseness, tongue tie release is actually considered a controversial topic with both supporters and detractors (personally, I am a supporter of this procedure). Among the detractors, tongue tie release is considered unusual and unnecessary... even bizarre. To…
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Fauquier ENT Social Media Update

About once per year, I like to reassess how Fauquier ENT is doing online ever since it was digitally born in 2005. And over the years, I am happy to say it has grown substantially beyond anything anyone would have expected. I would like to think it's because quality and trusted information is provided, but who knows? Overall, the website now gets about 28,000 hits per day or almost one million hits per month. Since 2005, it has received more than 13 million views. Of these, there has…
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March 15, 2015

Cranial Nerve 13 and Cranial Nerve 14

If you ask any medical doctor or student how many cranial nerves a human has, they all will invariably answer TWELVE. After all, that is what we all learn in medical school and that is what the answer is on any exams. However, if you are into comparative biology and anatomy esoterica, you may actually answer that animals including humans have 14 cranial nerves... not 12. (A) illustrates human human nervous system from 1960 textbook "A Functional Approach to Neuroanatomy". (B) illu…
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March 13, 2015

New Non-Invasive, Non-Medication Treatment for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux(LPR)

REZA Band is a new non-invasive device that may be able to treat LPR reflux without the need for medications. Furthermore, it may be able to address all the different forms of reflux regardless of whether it is acidic or non-acidic . The device is worn around the neck like a necktie and tightened snugly over the cricoid cartilage . By exerting pressure on the cricoid cartilage (see pic below), any reflux that occurs up into the throat region will not be able to pass up into the voicebox …
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March 11, 2015

When is an Infant a Good Candidate for Upper Lip and/or Tongue Tie Release? Guest Blog Post

This is a guest blog post by Dr. Bobak Ghaheri of The Oregon Clinic While there are many potential causes of breastfeeding problems, tongue tie and upper lip tie have recently gained attention as potential reasons that can be addressed. To date, all available evidence in the literature suggests that a frenotomy (release of the abnormally tight tissue in children with ankyloglossia) is beneficial in improving breastfeeding outcomes. However, there is still significant confusion among provid…
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Can Smelling Farts and Bad Breath Reduce Risk of Cancer and Other Illnesses

Initially, I thought this was a hoax... But upon further investigation, did have support in the scientific literature, though actual human health benefits may be stretching the conclusions a bit far. The idea that smelling farts or bad breath may have human health benefits is based on a research paper called " The synthesis and functional evaluation of a mitochondria-targeted hydrogen sulfide donor, (10-oxo-10-(4-(3-thioxo-3H-1,2-dithiol-5-yl)phenoxy)decyl)triphenylphosphonium bromide (…
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March 08, 2015

General ENT Video of 16 Disease Conditions

This video has probably taken more of my time from initial concept, to preparation, and finally execution than any other video  I have made so far. The initial idea for this video probably occurred back in 2012 when my wife showed me a very creative video of an attractive woman showing 25 different ways of wearing a scarf . This video in turn was based on the Brady Brunch intro . At that moment, I knew I wanted to do something similar, but showing different ENT conditions instead. Bu…
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March 06, 2015

Bleeding After Tonsillectomy (Pictures)

Bleeding after Tonsillectomy (circa 2010) 5 years old patient Bleeding after tonsillectomy is a very rare, but potentially life-threatening event. The often quoted probability of bleeding after this surgery is 1 in 1000 . Many surgeons have statistics much better than this. I like to consider myself in this "better" group. But... no matter how good you are, if enough tonsillectomies are performed, statistically, a significant bleed after tonsillectomy will occur at some point no…
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