Tooth and ENT Doctor

Barotitis media is an inflammation of the ear caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. It is also called aerotitis. This is a problem of inflammation or bleeding in the middle ear caused by a difference between the air pressure in the middle ear and that of the atmosphere - as occurs in sudden changes of altitude, in diving, and in hyperbaric chambers. During a sudden increase in ambient pressure, gas must move from the nasopharynx into the middle ear to maintain equal pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane (ear drum). If the eustachian tube (connecting the middle ear to the back of the nose) is not functioning properly, as in upper respiratory tract infections or allergy, the pressure in the middle ear is lower than the ambient pressure. The relative negative pressure in the middle ear results in retraction of the tympanic membrane and a transudate of blood from the vessels in the lamina propria of the mucous membrane forms in the middle ear. Very severe press...

Cleaning our ears feels kind of nice. Right? Like scratching an itch. Getting out that nasty looking orange/brown/yellow wax gives one a sense of accomplishment. We look at the stain on the cotton buds with a certain element of personal pride. But, some of us, despite doing it almost everyday, end up having a condition called 'impacted cerumen'. Here's a post regarding it. Cerumen impaction is a condition in which earwax has become tightly packed in the external ear canal to the point that the canal is blocked. It develops when earwax accumulates in the inner part of the ear canal and blocks the eardrum. Impaction does not happen under normal circumstances because cerumen is produced by glands in the outer one third of the ear canal; it is not produced in the inner part. The cerumen traps sand or dust particles before they reach the ear drum. It also protects the outer part of the ear canal because it repels water. The slow movement of t...

When I saw this video, I remembered the countless times I removed different kinds of insect in the ears of a lot of people at the Jose Reyes Medical Center's Emergency Room. These were the cases that we usually attended to especially in the wee hours of the morning, with patients claiming "something" crawled up in their ear while they were sleeping. I have removed cockroaches, wasps, moths and even worms! I remember one case where a mentally challenged individual was brought to us complaining of movements inside his ear, and on otoscopy and endoscopy, we saw several moving "fruit" worms in his middle ear! We had to bring him to the operating room to put him under sedation to be able to remove the worms. A colleague of mine reported once that he removed several live and feeding ticks in 2 sisters who had a shihtzu sharing their bed. He also had an experience of removing live maggots in the one ear canal which burrowed in the middle ear! It may be so "gros...

I have an iPod but I seldom use it. It is because most of the time, I am in front of my laptop and playing music through the media player. Recently, we've been reading accounts of audiologists issuing a warning we’ve been told years ago - if we listen too loud for too long, we'll lose our hearing. When the Sony Walkman made its debut in 1979, audio researchers said the same thing. When the portable CD player hit the market five years later in 1984, the warnings were issued again. The difference? This time experts are pointing the finger to longer battery life and seemingly endless string of hits that can be played in our ears through the mp3’s, mp4’s and iPods without a break. There are many portable digital audio and video players on the market but clearly the Apple iPod is the market leader with 42 million units sold, 14 million just in the last quarter of 2005. Some iPods can play up to 20 hours straight before the battery needs recharging. Most units can ho...