Host: Hi there, and welcome to Fox Focus. If you are unable to breathe through your nose, if you suffer from constant sinus infections, if your nose does not stop running or if your snoring is becoming a problem this segment is just for you. Dr. Swerdlin from Sinus & Snoring MD is here to educate us on the available treatments to treat these conditions. Dr. Swerdlin is a board-certified Ear, Nose, Throat, Snoring and Sinus specialist and he joins us today. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Swerdlin: Thanks for having me.
Host: So as I was just going through some of those conditions, I’m thinking, as I’m sure a lot of other people are thinking, ‘I have that!’ Constant sinus infections, nose running, like ‘ugh!’ it’s so annoying, isn’t it?
Dr. Swerdlin: It is, and it’s very common.
Host: Is it? Okay. So I’m among friends.
Dr. Swerdlin: That’s right.
Host: So what type of patients do you treat at your clinic?
Dr. Swerdlin: So we see patients that are having difficulty breathing through the nose, that have constant runny noses, that have sinus pressure, sinus infections, decreased sense of smell. And some of the patients maybe have broken their nose or they have polyps inside of their nose. We also see patients that snore and patients that have sleep apnea.
Host: Oh my gosh, I couldn’t even imagine having sleep apnea, not being able to sleep at night. Or you actually stop breathing when you sleep at night, isn’t that what sleep apnea is?
Dr. Swerdlin: That’s right. That’s correct.
Host: Do you have any in-office procedures? Because I know the nose is pretty complicated.
Dr. Swerdlin: Yes, the technology has advanced over the last 15 years, so there’s a variety of procedures that we have available in the office to alleviate most of those problems.
You know, we have balloon sinus dilation which is a procedure used to gently dilate the sinus passages. We have procedures to decrease the redundant tissue in the nose, if you have a very swollen nose. We have almost like a laser, we have tools that can shrink the lining of the nose. We have vacuum cleaners that we can use to vacuum the polyps in the nose, and we have a procedure for runny nose[s] which very gently cools off the area of the nose that causes excessive drainage. And for snoring, there is a variety of procedures that we have.
In many instances snoring, patients that have snoring have nasal problems, too. So we try to correct nasal problems and then snoring is usually caused by excessive vibration in the throat due to narrowing of the upper airway so the upper airway starts in the nose, right/left nostrils, so we are able to help alleviate the nasal blockage, and stiffen up the soft palate, maybe shorten up the soft palate, we can even shrink the tonsils and there’s also mouthpieces that can be given for snoring.
Host: And you can do that all in your office?
Dr. Swerdlin: Pretty much, yes.
Host: Wow, that’s pretty amazing.
Dr. Swerdlin: Yes.
Host: I’ve heard that nose procedures can be pretty painful. Is that true?
Dr. Swerdlin: Not anymore. You know, in our office we have the ability to offer a variety of anesthesia options.
Host: Okay.
Dr. Swerdlin: I am a baby myself, so when I go to the doctor I am afraid of needles, so I treat all of my patients like as if they are me. So I’m afraid of pain, so I don’t want them to have pain, so we offer all available options. We have gel, anesthetic gels, we have oral sedation, IV sedation, one of my favorite is laughing gas sedation.
Host: Okay, yep!
Dr. Swerdlin: Which is very common. And the nice thing about laugh gas is it completely relaxes you. It cuts down the pain and the edge and it goes away from your system, so you can drive yourself to the procedure then drive back and go back to work. We also have the ability to perform general anesthesia in an operating room or a surgical center if also need be.
Host: Okay and what is the downtime? I mean you mentioned people who go back to work.
Dr. Swerdlin: Yes, typically the downtime could be, you could be back to work the same day or the next day. It depends on the procedure, it also depends on the sedation. If we gave you general anesthesia or sedation you probably shouldn’t be going back to work the same day, but with laughing gas, you can go back the same day.
Host: If you any of our listeners would like to schedule a free sinus and snoring screening with Dr. Swerdlin please go to SinusAndSnoringMD.com for details and to schedule that appointment. This is a limited offer so call today. Thanks so much for watching Fox Focus.
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