Need help with chronic sinus infections, habitual snoring or allergies?

Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists can help with these conditions and many more. Also called otolaryngologists, ENT specialists are highly trained to care for adults and children.

ENT Services and Treatments

  • Allergies are often inherited and occur when the immune system reacts to something eaten or in the environment. ENTs perform allergy tests to determine a person’s allergic reactions and customize a plan to help treat those reactions. Treatment may include medication, lifestyle changes and immunotherapy (allergy shots).
  • Hearing loss can have many causes, including age, disease, inherited conditions, infections or accidents, and can be very frustrating for the patient and his or her family and friends. The ENT and audiology teams at Olathe Health can help. With advanced testing, we can determine the type and degree of an individual’s hearing problem and present treatment options, including hearing aids, assistive listening devices, and hearing loss counseling and rehabilitation.
  • Feeling unsteady or dizzy can be caused by many factors such as poor circulation, inner ear disease, medication usage, injury, infection, allergies or neurological disease. Treatment may include medication, rehabilitation or surgery depending upon the cause.
  • Ear surgery can benefit patients with structural defects or injuries to their ears, reoccurring ear infections and damaged ear drums, as well as those who have malformed ears. One of the most common ear surgeries is the placement of ear tubes. Ear tubes are tiny cylinders that are placed in the ear drums in an effort to reduce ear infections or improve hearing, speech or balance. ENTs perform ear surgery and tube placement in children, adolescents and adults.
  • ENT surgeons perform reconstructive and cosmetic facial plastic surgery. Conditions treated include birthmarks on the face, cleft lip and palate, protruding ears, as well as other conditions that are the result of accidents, trauma, burns, or previous surgery. Some reconstructive procedures are required to treat existing diseases like skin cancer. Common cosmetic facial plastic surgery procedures include facelifts, eye lifts, rhinoplasty, chin and cheek implants, liposuction, and procedures to correct facial wrinkles.
  • Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, occurs when acid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus. GERD can lead to other medical problems such as ulcers and strictures of the esophagus, cough, asthma, throat and laryngeal inflammation, inflammation and infection of the lungs, and collection of fluid in the sinuses and middle ear, and may even lead to cancer. Not everyone with reflux experiences symptoms, however; instead they may have a condition called Laryngopharyngeal Reflux, or Silent Reflux. Your ENT may recommend lifestyle changes, medications or surgery to treat GERD and Silent Reflux.
  • ENT specialists perform head and neck surgery to treat many conditions, including cancer, thyroid disorders, swallowing and voice disorders, sleep issues, sinus disorders, removing tonsils and adenoids, and reconstructive surgery. Board-certified ENT specialists perform both minimally invasive procedures and open surgeries for adult and pediatric patients.
  • The ENT team is experienced in caring for the smallest of pediatric patients, who may have hearing loss, chronic ear fluid or ear infections, repeated sinus or throat infections, facial injury, reflux, allergies, sleep disorders or other diseases or conditions. The entire team works hard to make pediatric patients feel comfortable, safe and happy while they’re under our care.
  • Nasal and sinus disorders include acute or chronic sinus infections, nose bleeds, nasal congestion or obstruction, deviated septum, post-nasal drainage, runny nose, abnormal sense of smell, sinus headaches and nasal polyps. ENTs treat patients through lifestyle changes, medication and surgery. These board-certified surgeons perform the latest sinus surgeries, including:

    Balloon Sinuplasty: Ear, nose and throat specialists at Olathe Health were among the first doctors in the region to begin using a clinically proven, minimally invasive technology called balloon sinuplasty to treat chronic sinus infections. The procedure involves using a small catheter and balloon to quickly open and expand blocked sinuses. With the gentle and minimally invasive nature of the procedure, patients experience minimal pain, no hospital stay, and most are back to normal activities within 24 hours. The invention of balloon sinuplasty provides an additional choice to the sinus treatment options at the Advanced Sinus Center at Olathe Medical Center. Balloon sinuplasty technology is clinically proven to be safe, effective and improve the quality of your life.

    Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS): A thin fiber-optic tube is guided through the patient’s nose. Micro-instruments are guided through the tube to enlarge the drainage pathways of the sinuses and help prevent the build-up of mucus and pus in the sinuses.

    Image-Guided Surgery: This procedure may be recommended for severe forms of chronic sinusitis, in cases where there’s been previous sinus surgery involves unusual anatomy. The ENT surgeon uses computed tomography (CT) scans and real-time information about the exact position of surgical instruments using infrared signals to navigate surgical instruments through complex sinus passages and provide surgical relief more precisely.

    Caldwell Luc Operation: This procedure relieves chronic sinusitis by improving the drainage of the maxillary sinus, one of the cavities beneath the eye. The maxillary sinus is entered through the upper jaw above one of the second molar teeth. A “window” is created to connect the maxillary sinus with the nose, helping to improve drainage.

  • The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recognizes more than 80 disorders of sleeping and waking that can harm a person’s health and quality of life and endanger public safety by contributing to traffic and industrial accidents. These disorders include problems, such as falling asleep or staying awake, nightmares and many others. Some disorders may even be potentially fatal.

    ENT sleep specialists may order a sleep study (polysomnogram) to help diagnose your sleep disorder. Treatment may include lifestyle changes, medication or surgery.

  • Somnoplasty is a surgical method for treating habitual snoring, chronic nasal obstruction and obstructive sleep apnea by removing or stiffening tissues of the uvula and soft palate. The procedure uses very low levels of radio-frequency heat energy to create finely controlled localized burn areas beneath the lining of the soft tissues of the soft palate. These areas are eventually resorbed by the body, shrinking the tissue volume and stiffening the tissues, helping to reduce symptoms.
  • Difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia) can occur at any age, and refers to the feeling of difficulty passing food or liquid from the mouth to the stomach. ENT swallowing specialists use a variety of diagnostic tests to identify the issue, and may recommend diet and lifestyle changes, medication, therapy or surgery to treat a patient’s swallowing disorder.
  • Many conditions can impact the quality of one’s voice, including hoarseness, laryngitis, Silent Reflux, voice misuse and overuse, benign vocal cord lesions, vocal cord hemorrhage, vocal cord paralysis/paresis and laryngeal cancer. ENT voice disorder specialists may recommend diagnostic testing, lifestyle changes, voice therapy with a speech language pathologist, medication or surgery.

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Whitney Zahn

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