There’s nothing more important than a good night’s sleep. The body uses that time to recharge and help you feel refreshed when you get up the next day. Snoring takes away from that process, and it surely isn’t beneficial for you – or anyone else. When it’s beginning to affect your daily activities or work, it’s time to seek help from a doctor for sleep disorders. This blog uncovers three warnings that will help you determine the urgency.

How Often Are You Waking Up?

Getting up too often? If you’re struggling trying to remember the last time you’ve been able to sleep through the night, you may have been experiencing a sleeping disorder for quite a while.

Heavy snorers are impacted by a disorder called sleep apnea. It intermittently stops your breathing in conjunction with loud snoring when the muscles surrounding the soft tissue lining your throat are relaxed, blocking off the airways. Signals transmit across the body, indicating you can’t breathe. An ENT doctor can recommend the best treatments to offset the chances of heart problems and reduce the symptoms.

Trouble Concentrating

Not getting enough rest can significantly affect your day. When the body doesn’t reach REM, a dream state, you’ll wake up feeling pretty tired. The medical term for the inability to concentrate is absent-mindedness. It can become so drastic that you could miss pieces of conversations or fall asleep at the most inconvenient times.

Exhausted All Other Remedies

Patients often try to treat their sleeping disorders at home when they become aware of their snoring. It is usually addressed by a spouse, partner, or loved one. But self-diagnosis is not as accurate as visiting a medical professional. At Westside Head & Neck, we can pinpoint whether excessive alcohol consumption, weight gain, or nasal congestion have contributed to the snoring. Other, but not uncommon, causes include pregnancy, swollen tonsils, and irregularly shaped facial bones.

Rhinoplasty is surgery done to change the size and shape of the nose. It’s typically performed by a plastic surgeon, but it can also be done by an ENT doctor.

While rhinoplasty is usually done for aesthetic purposes, this surgery can also come with health benefits. Our doctors list them below.

Improve Sleep

People often experience an improvement in breathing following their rhinoplasty surgery. With this comes an improvement in sleep, as rhinoplasty can open your airways, allowing for a better night’s sleep.

Many patients also report a decrease in snoring and sleep apnea, both of which can negatively impact both you and your partner’s sleep.

Increase Exercise

If you can’t breathe right, exercise can be difficult. Once nasal surgery opens your airways, you may start working out more and improve your health.

Reduce Sinus Issues

Patients also report a decrease in sinus problems like headaches, nasal congestion, and sinus infections by getting rhinoplasty surgery.

During your rhinoplasty surgery, your surgeon will remove obstructions in your nasal airways, and once this blockage is removed, your sinus can drain better.

Repair a Broken Nose

A big reason people choose to undergo rhinoplasty is if they had a trauma that broke their nose. Rhinoplasty surgery can repair this issue while also making sure that your nose has a more attractive appearance.

If you’re not interested in the aesthetic value of rhinoplasty surgery, our office offers same-day nose repair for broken noses.

Boost Self-Esteem

Never underestimate the power of a good self-esteem. Your self-image can affect your work, dating, and social life, and if getting plastic surgery is what will make you more confident, then go for it!

Many of our patients give us glowing feedback about how much their lives have improved after getting their noses altered.

Dr. Aynehchi of Westside Head & Neck is a double board certified rhinoplasty surgeon, so you couldn’t be in better hands. If you’d like to undergo surgical rhinoplasty in Los Angeles, contact our office!

Ear pain can mean numerous things; it can be an external ache due to trauma, such as getting punched, and it can also be due to an internal issue like otitis media or tinnitus. Please note that ear pain is never normal, and if it’s accompanied by hearing loss, this may be permanent.

Ear pain can subside on its own in some cases without a doctor’s intervention. Two of the cases where this ear pain goes away without treatment are:

• Ear pain caused by jaw pain or a headache
• Ear pain from recurring cases of swimmer’s ear

If ear pain vanishes on its own, make sure to closely monitor your ears in case it returns, and in that case, contact an ENT for ear problems.

However, you may not be so lucky to be included in the two categories above. Your ear pain may be caused by one of the conditions listed below: 

Middle Ear Infection

An ear infection is one of the common causes of ear pain, and it occurs when fluid gets trapped in the middle ear. If the fluid is stuck in the ear canal for too long, it can become infected, resulting in an earache that won’t go away.

Ear pain caused by an ear infection is accompanied by a fever and somethings drainage from the area. 

Blockage of the Eustachian tube

Ear pain can be due to Eustachian tube blockage, and this is caused by allergies, colds, and sinus infections.

Air Pressure Changes (ear barotrauma)

You’ve probably experienced the feeling of your ears popping if you’re on an elevator or airplane. Normally, air pressure remains the same inside and outside the ear, but the eustachian tube can’t keep up when the pressure changes too quickly. 

If this is why your ear is aching, you can try to pop your ears by yawning or by plugging your nose and blowing. If these don’t work, put a warm, damp washcloth over your ear to help the pressure adjust. 

Earwax Buildup

Earwax occurs naturally, but too much can cause a blockage. This in turn creates pressure that can lead to ear pain. 

If your ears hurt, you should contact an ENT doctor to give you an ear exam. Our ENT office addresses all the problems mentioned above, so you are in great hands with our doctors!

If you need help from an ENT doctor, you’ll likely need ongoing appointments for several years, as issues of the ear, nose, and throat are often chronic. Treating these areas requires a wide skill set and working knowledge of new treatments.

Problems that can be treated by ENTs include:

• Allergies and sinus disorders
• Head and neck issues, including tumors
• Breathing issues
• Chronic throat pain
• Hearing and other ear problems

If you suffer from an issue like those above, you’ll need to find a reliable and experienced ENT in your area.

The first thing you should consider is your insurance policy, as this will put a limit on some ENT offices. Westside Head & Neck is in-network with most insurance, PPO’s, HMO’s, and Medicare. Your insurance agency may also have a list of covered ENTs for you to choose from.

You can also check with our healthcare provider if you’re still wondering which ENTs near you offer good service. You can also try asking your friends, family, and coworkers. Chances are good that someone you know already has an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Factors to Consider

There are a few factors that should be considered during your ENT search.

First of all, a board certification is recommended, as an ENT with a board certification has a four-year college degree, has completed four years of medical school, and then has undergone five further years of training. The final step in getting a board certification is passing the ABO – American Board of Otolaryngology. Some of the doctors of Westside Head & Neck have actually served on the ABO, meaning that they are constantly up to state with medical standards.

Second of all, most doctors’ offices have online reviews where the public can detail their experience. Customer service is an often overlooked but invaluable part of being a doctor, as patients are relying on doctors for pain relief and help with their symptoms.

Third, choosing an experienced doctor is essential. Having seen years or even decades of patients can help them give you a more accurate diagnosis.

Westside Head & Neck in Los Angeles is an ENT doctor group that meets all of these requirements.

You may have heard the term “nasal polyp” thrown around before.

Nasal polyps are noncancerous growths on the lining of your nasal passages or sinus cavities. They are soft and droop down like teardrops or grapes. While they are tumors, they aren’t painful and they often don’t feel like anything at all.

Many times, the symptoms of nasal polyps are confused with a sinus infection. Some patients don’t even realize they have them until they’re checked out by an ENT doctor.

While these polyps are safe, they can grow larger or form in groups that block your nasal passages and cause breathing issues. In addition to affecting your breathing, nasal polyps can diminish or even eliminate your sense of smell and also have been shown to increase nasal infections.

Nasal polys can cause chronic information and have been related to asthma, allergies, and certain immune disorders.

What Causes Nasal Polyps?

Nasal polyps don’t have a definite cause, as some people can have long-term inflammation and not develop these tumors. Some scientists believe that people with polyps have different immune system responses and different chemical markers in their mucous membranes than do those who don’t develop polyps.

Do You Have to Remove Nasal Polyps?

Common signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps include:

• Runny nose
• Postnasal drip
• Decreased or absent sense of smell
• Loss of sense of taste
• Chronic nasal congestion
• Facial pain or headache
• Pain in your upper teeth
• A sense of pressure over your forehead and face
• Snoring
• Frequent nosebleeds

If any of these symptoms last more than 10 days straight, you may need to get your nasal polyps removed.

Sinus surgery is required to remove these growths, and it’s done using either general or local anesthesia. This is not a painful surgery, but you may feel your symptoms worsen during the recovery process due to the swelling and blood clotting in your nose.

If you need nasal surgery, look no further than the ENT specialists of Westside Head & Neck.

If you are experiencing congestion, especially in your ears, you may feel the urge to plug your nose and blow in order to pop your ears. This can be a very satisfying feeling, but it can also become a bit painful if you keep blowing and the pressure isn’t relieved.

When you plug your nose and blow, the thougth may have crossed your mind: is ear popping safe?

Popping your ears is when air is pushed up your Eustachian tube behind your eardrums. The popping noise is your Eustachian tube opening and closing. By releasing air, pressure becomes equalized on both sides of the eardrum.

In this blog, our ENT doctor explores when ear popping becomes dangerous.

The first situation where popping your ears is bad for your health is the risk of infection. The Eustachian tube connects to the nose, and this is normally not relevant. However, if you are suffering from sinus pressure or sinus congestion, then you likely also have some mucus backed up.

Popping your ears can liquids from your nose to enter your ear, which can then cause an ear infection.

The second way that popping your ears can be unsafe is that you run the risk of blowing out your eardrums. Holding yuru nose and blowing out is the common method of popping your ears, but too much pressure can blow out the eardrum. You should never plug your ears and sneeze, as this is far too much pressure on your ears.

If you are trying to pop your ears while holding your nose and blowing, you should stop if the pressure begins to hurt your ears.

If you need pressure relief, our ENT for ear problems recommends trying over the counter nasal decongestant, as this will solve the root of the problem. Placing a warm washcloth or heating pad over one ear can help pop your ears.

If you find yourself with excess pressure in your ears on a regular basis, you may need special tubes inserted to relieve pressure. Contact us to set up an appointment for ear relief.

Many have experienced it – you’re sitting or lying down when you remember something you need to do. You stand up, but your body isn’t quite ready to be as productive as you, and you experience lightheadedness or dizziness.

It’s a common occurrence that’s actually called orthostatic hypotension. When you get up and shift your body’s position so drastically, your blood pressure can drop; this causes you to feel woozy and even like you are about to blackout.

This process happens because blood naturally rushes downwards to your legs when you stand up. Your body then has to pump blood harder, causing a heart rate increase for a few minutes.

What Causes These Dizzy Spells?

These bouts of dizziness may occur after you eat a meal because digestion diverts blood flow and can also reduce your blood pressure. Because less blood is in other parts of your body, you are more likely to get lightheaded.

Another big reason why you might feel lightheaded when you stand up is because you haven’t drank enough water. When you’re dehydrated, your body cannot control your blood pressure as easily. Any ENT doctor will tell you that you need more water than you realize. Your urine should always be a straw yellow color, indicating that you have enough water in your system.

Getting dizzy when you stand up is something that becomes more common as you age. Older cells in your heart and arteries become slower and are less quick to respond to stimuli. Certain medications that are more common among the elderly are diabetes and heart disease pills, and these can also affect your sense of dizziness.

Any doctor will tell you that this is a completely normal thing to experience and the most important part is to make sure you don’t pass out or fall down. The best way to do this is to get up slowly and to have something nearby to lean on if necessary.

You could also up your intake of water and eat smaller meals, as these can help your body’s flow of blood.

If you need additional advice or feel that your dizziness is worse than what’s detailed above, contact our office. We have multiple skilled and experienced doctors who can offer you multiple methods of lightheadedness treatment.

One of the most common questions our ENT doctors get from our ear patients is how their diagnosis will affect their travel plans. You may be asking “can I fly with a ruptured eardrum?”

The most important way to answer this question is to make sure that you know for certain what’s wrong with your ear. If you are wondering how to tell if you have a ruptured eardrum, symptoms are not limited to just ear pain. If you have a ruptured eardrum, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Bloody or clear drainage
• Pus
• Severe earache or pain
• Unexplained noise or ringing in the ears
• Hearing loss in the affected ear
• Dizziness
• Facial weakness

A perforated eardrum is when a hole or tear develops in the thin piece of tissue that divides your middle ear, and this condition can occur due to an ear infection or when too much pressure is put against the eardrum, causing it to rupture. This pressure can be due to sinus congestion or blunt force trauma.

The ear is very fragile, and your doctor will tell you to avoid certain activities. However, whether or not you can fly depends on where in the treatment process you are for your ruptured eardrum. Flying with a perforated eardrum is debated due to this.

When you fly, the air pressure around you changes quickly, which is why you may feel pressure changes in your ears during takeoff and landing. If you have a perforated eardrum, you’ll find that air pressure actually balances out better due to the air’s easier passage from inside your body to the outside. If you are flying with a ruptured eardrum, you will actually experience less discomfort than usual.

However, if you recently had surgery on your ear, then you shouldn’t fly. Flying after a recent surgery comes with a number of risks, including pain and blood clotting. If you need to travel when you have a ruptured eardrum, we recommend that you speak to our ENT for ear problems in Los Angeles beforehand.

Going out with friends seems like a good idea until the next morning. Whether you drank too much, stayed up too late, or spent too much time yelling and singing to your favorite songs, you may wake up feeling terrible.

You may have a habit of thinking you caught something at the bar or club due to the fact you have a cough after going out. You may find that this gets worse when the weather is on the colder side.

Our ENT doctors try to get to the bottom of why your throat may feel hoarse or dry after a night of drinking.

A dry mouth, sore throat, or cough after a night of drinking can be attributed to a number of factors.

First, alcohol dries out your mouth and throat, so it increases the likelihood that you will wake up in pain. On top of that, being drunk makes you more likely to speak at louder volumes. Bars and clubs are loud, so you have to scream at your friends to be heard.

This can create inflammation in your vocal cords and throat.

On top of that, alcohol is a diuretic, which means that it will induce frequent urination. Urinating often will increase the amount of water lost from your body, so this can lead to dehydration. Additionally, drinking too much alcohol often leads to nausea and lightheadedness, so it’s possible that these factors are also causing you to cough.

If you find yourself coughing every time you drink, you may need to make an appointment with a chronic cough doctor, as this may signal an underlying position. Asthma is often triggered by alcohol, and alcohol can also lower your immune system.

It’s possible that when your immune system was lowered, you picked up an illness.

You may have noticed that your nose is bleeding frequently. Nosebleeds are a normal part of life, as the nostrils are lined with tiny blood vessels that are sensitive to the touch. Something like nose-picking, blunt force trauma, a foreign object, or rubbing the nose too hard could trigger a nosebleed.

However, when are nosebleeds cause to worry? A nosebleed may be a sign of something more serious if it occurs more than 4 times a week, and this is referred to as a chronic nosebleed.

Another reason behind chronic nosebleeds is reduced platelet count. Certain treatments for cancer, like chemotherapy, can increase the frequency of bleeding. If you have breast cancer, you may be undergoing targeted therapies like Avastin. This will also increase your nose bleeds.

Keep in mind that painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen can lower your blood platelet count, which can then lower your body’s ability to clot blood.

If you have cancer, you may notice that your nosebleeds are increasing. They are especially common for cancer patients because they can occur as a result of something as simple as blowing the nose too hard, sneezing, or bumping it lightly.

You can start seeing a chronic nosebleed specialist in Los Angeles if you want to try to treat this annoying issue. Nosebleeds are usually just an annoyance, but you should go to the emergency room if:

• You can taste blood. This means that the nosebleed is from the back of your nose, which contains more deep blood vessels.
• The nose has lasted for 20 minutes or longer
• The bleeding is profuse
• You feel weak or dizzy due to the significant loss of blood
• You suffer from high blood pressure, hypertension, and blood clotting disorders, especially haemophilia

See if one of our doctors can help you or your child if you find nosebleeds occurring more than usual. Our ENT doctors are highly skilled in treating nosebleeds. If your child is the one with the nosebleed, our Pediatric ENT doctor in Los Angeles can work with them in the friendliest way possible, as not to upset them during an already upsetting time.