Why Visit an Emergency Room? Ear, Nose, Throat & Mouth Conditions
There are a number of conditions that can affect the ears, nose, throat as well as the mouth, all of which have various causes and therefore various courses of treatment. It is also true that among all these conditions, not all of them are medical emergencies per se, which means that not all of them require one to head to an emergency room for assessment and treatment. For instance, you may have a minor sore throat that is due to a cold or flu, which is something that is not really an emergency, and is common especially when flu season hits. In such a case, you won’t necessarily need to head to an emergency room, with the same applying minor cases involving the ears, nose and mouth. The reason why most people panic somewhat, and are likely to head to an emergency room, especially for the nose, ears and mouth, is due to the cosmetic aspect and also due to the part they play in 3 of the main senses of the body including smell and hearing. This article will therefore look to articulate just why you should head to an emergency room for cases that warrant you to do so as far as ear, nose, throat and mouth conditions are concerned by looking at the consequences of not doing so as well as just why a visit to an emergency room is the best course of action for such conditions.
Starting with the ear, if the symptoms you are experiencing include a serious problem with balance, then you should head over to an emergency room as soon as possible. This is because you may have a vestibular infection, which as is covered over at the ever reliable frontlineer.com, is an infection of the vestibular system of the ear which controls balance. It is important therefore to have this condition checked out and treated before you get into a serious accident due to the balance issues or if it is an infection causing the balance issues, before the infection gets worse further damaging your ear and leading to sepsis by getting into the blood. Balance issues should be treated as soon as possible as they increase the risk of falls and accidents. If the symptoms indicate that you have an eardrum perforation or a ruptured eardrum, failure to get yourself over to an emergency room for treatment not only increases chances or injury and infection of the middle ear, it can lead to a permanent loss of hearing as well. It is therefore important to visit an emergency room for ear conditions warranting the same to prevent such consequences.
Chronic sinus infections, affecting the nose, should also be looked at in emergency rooms since if one doesn’t and lets them go untreated, there is a possibility can spread to surrounding parts such as eyes, brain as well as major blood vessels and nerves. As is covered exhaustively by the experts over at frontlineer.com, if the infection spreads to the brain then, it becomes serious as it may lead to brain damage, seizures and even death. When it comes to serious conditions afflicting the throat that should lead to a visit to an emergency room, such as severe sore throat, pharynx disorders, severe croup, among others, it is important one heads to the emergency room as soon as possible as most of these conditions usually lead to difficulty breathing which should always be taken seriously as difficulty breathing can be fatal if left unattended to. When it comes to the mouth, sudden changes which are unexplained are usually a result of a serious allergic reaction to a drug and failure to get yourself over to an emergency room may lead to anaphylactic shock which is life-threatening. All of these conditions involving the nose, throat and mouth, among similar others, require one to visit an emergency room for treatment to prevent the aforementioned repercussions from ensuing.
As is covered in detail by the subject matter experts over at frontlineer.com, one of the reasons why you should visit an emergency room for ear, nose, throat and mouth conditions warranting the same is due to the fact that it has all the requisite facilities in place for both diagnosis and treatment of said conditions. If there needs to be a blood test in cases of infection or imaging testing to check for some of these conditions by use of say a CAT scan, the emergency room is well placed to carry out these diagnostic tests satisfactorily. As far as treatment is concerned, emergency rooms have facilities to conduct minor surgery such as that which is required for cases of draining an abscess in the throat or image-guided surgery for sinus repair among others. If the condition is due to an infection, then in an emergency room there are facilities for administering of IV antibiotics if needed.
From the foregoing, it is clear why should visit an emergency room as far as ear, nose, throat and mouth conditions are concerned, with this discussion continuing over at frontlineer.com by the subject matter experts over there.
