Doctors told how to protect yourself from tonsillitis and sinusitis in the cold season

What hides a sore throat

With the onset of cold weather, the flow of patients at the doors of ENT doctors’ offices increases markedly. As the otolaryngologist said “Open clinic” Evgeny Lomovtsev at an online conference in MK, one of the first and most popular complaints is a runny nose, decreased sense of smell, nasal congestion, sore throat and sore throat. That is, everything that the people commonly call a cold. Otolaryngologists do not hide: their specialty is quite a seasonal one.

This means that the first advice of doctors is about the correct behavior in the cold season.

– What to do in order not to become a patient – dress for the weather. But we must understand that all “cold” conditions are a consequence of exposure to viruses. Therefore, the main wish is not to contact obviously sick people. Of course, in Moscow and other large cities such contacts cannot be avoided. Therefore, my advice is to consult a doctor in time, – Evgeny Lomovtsev emphasized.

However, not every cough or sore throat is a consequence of the fact that you drove a couple of metro stations in the same car with a cold citizen or your child brought SARS from school. In the clinical practice of ENT doctors, it is not uncommon for pain and discomfort in the throat to be just a symptom of a completely different disease, not even associated with the nasopharynx.

“There is a certain connection between the throat and gastrointestinal problems,” explains the head of the otolaryngology department at the Open Clinic. Sofia Melnik. – There is a group of patients with reflux. This is a condition in which fluid from the stomach is forced up the esophagus and into the throat. This liquid contains pepsin. The surface of the digestive tract calmly tolerates its effects. But the mucous membrane of the mouth and larynx is easily injured by pepsin – this causes irritation and pain.

Other companions of reflux are heartburn, belching, coughing, hoarseness, and a sensation of a lump in the throat.

“All of these symptoms suggest reflux in the patient. Finding it is very important. After all, you can help such people only together with a gastroenterologist. That is, a special, combined therapy is needed. Otherwise, you can treat the throat for a long time, but it will not go away completely.

Senior Researcher, Department of Pathology of the Lacrimal Apparatus, Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Research Institute of Eye Diseases”, otolaryngologist, dacryologist Nikolay Krakhovetsky added that it is often possible to recognize reflux in children only by ENT symptoms – sore throat and perspiration. For adult patients, the more characteristic signs of this gastrointestinal disease are heartburn and belching.

Nose problems can also occur after an unsuccessful trip to the dentist.

According to Evgeny Lomovtsev, one of his patients complained of pain in the sinus and nasal congestion. Six months earlier, the man had a post for a dental implant. Apparently, something went wrong in the dentist’s office: the pin fell into the nasal sinus.

– I had a patient who for two months complained of an unpleasant smell from the nose and pain in the right sinus. On the MRI, we saw a bright white spot. This is a foreign body in the sinus, which did not bother the patient for many years. She underwent endoscopic surgery. It turned out that there was a fungal body in the sinus. Once upon a time, a woman had her teeth treated, her roots were sealed. Microparticles of the filling material got into the sinus of the nose and began to grow fungus, – said Sofya Melnik.

A clean nose will help you pass the exam

ENT doctors are perplexed: many people suffer all their lives with a chronic runny nose or a crooked nasal septum and think that this is normal. It’s like everyone lives like this. No, not all, doctors say. Doctors urge not to postpone the trip for an examination if the nose has stopped breathing fully. After all, the consequences of such a “defective” breath can be the saddest.

– Normal breathing is good oxygenation (blood oxygen saturation. – Note. “MK”). This means that more brilliant ideas come to mind, children study better, they pass the Unified State Examination for higher scores, – Nikolai Krakhovetsky shared his observations.

But what kind of clean breathing can we talk about if sinusitis “covered”? How to treat it correctly and what to do absolutely not, the doctors also told.

It is easy to recognize an insidious disease by its symptoms: headache, feeling of a “heavy head” and swelling under the eyes, temperature. Doctors admit that sinusitis is still shrouded in a cloud of myths.

The most terrible fear of patients: if you have sinusitis, then the doctor will take a huge needle and make a terribly painful puncture.

“That’s not entirely true. There are complexes of drugs, in most cases, acute sinusitis can be treated without a puncture. Only in advanced cases, when the patient has not applied for a long time or is not being treated with drugs, do you have to make a puncture, ”explained Sophia Melnik.

Doctors do this unpleasant procedure with minimal losses for the patient. In the sinus, the thinnest place is selected, and it is his doctor who pierces it. It takes a couple of days to recover. True, puncture for sinusitis is not a complete treatment. It is necessary either to continue antibiotic therapy, or to put drainage tubes in the patient’s nose and flush the sinuses regularly until the inflammation goes away completely.

By the way, there is a direct link between bad nasal breathing and sinusitis. Who breathes defectively – risks more. As Dr. Krakhovetsky said, normally, not the cold “street” air that we inhale, but the warm one that we exhale enters the sinus. It enters the sinus already cleaned and conditioned. After all, the nose is a complex and self-cleaning system. If the system does not work properly at the inlet, then “dirty” air with harmful microbes enters the sinus.

A bag of buckwheat and cotton buds are banned

When asked what to do if your throat hurts, your ears are blocked, or it becomes difficult to blow your nose, the doctors have only one answer – you need to urgently go to the reception. But what can not be done? There is a whole list here.

Firstly, you can not use folk methods in the treatment of sinusitis. Bags with hot salt or buckwheat, warm hard-boiled eggs under the eyes – all this in the acute stage of the disease will only aggravate the patient’s situation. Similar grandmother’s methods are good only as physiotherapy during the follow-up period, when antibiotics have already done their job. Of course, tablets and other therapy options should be prescribed not by a pharmacist in a pharmacy, but by an ENT doctor.

Secondly, it is categorically impossible to try to rid the ears of the sulfur plug with cotton swabs.

– A cotton swab causes microtrauma to the epidermis in the ear. Because of this, bacteria and fungi from the surface of the skin penetrate the skin. As a result, you can get otitis externa, says Evgeny Lomovtsev. – Ear candles are also not recommended. With them, we risk getting burned.

The third advice from ENT doctors for those who want to stay healthy is not to listen to loud music with headphones. Bass and vibration negatively affect the brain, cochlea and auditory nerve. As a result, a loud music lover is at risk of getting sensorineural hearing loss.

The fourth advice is not to take any sore throat for a sore throat and not to run away for antibiotics at the first symptoms. Most often, a sore throat is pharyngitis, an inflammation of the back wall. Special symptoms will help to recognize a sore throat: high fever, very severe sore throat, plaque on the tonsils. It is very dangerous to ignore a sore throat. The disease has its target organs. Untreated angina can result in myocarditis or rheumatoid arthritis.

But coughing and sneezing in the morning, which many residents of the metropolis suffer from during the cold season, is not only allergic rhinitis, but also a consequence of the start of the heating season.

– The air in the apartment and office is dry – it is harmful to the mucosa. At night there is no possibility to drink, chew. Often people sleep with their mouths open. The mucous membrane dries up, there is not enough moisture for its normal operation. As a result, after waking up, symptoms of dryness, cough appear. It goes away after breakfast. In addition, you can bury peach or apricot oil at night, says Evgeny Lomovtsev.

Take care of your health and don’t get sick! Dress according to the weather, avoid contact with people with colds and SARS, and consult a doctor in time. And if you have any questions, you can ask them by sending an email to: [email protected]