Can Enlarged Adenoids Cause Hearing Loss

What Is The Treatment For Enlarged Adenoids

Treatment depends on how severe the condition is. If your childs enlarged adenoids arent infected, the doctor may not recommend surgery. Instead, the doctor may choose to simply wait and see if the adenoids shrink on their own as your child gets older.

In other cases, your doctor may recommend medication, such as a nasal steroid, to shrink enlarged adenoids. However, its common for enlarged adenoids to be removed if they continue to cause problems despite treatment with medications. The procedure is fairly simple and doesnt have many risks. This surgery is called an adenoidectomy.

Learn more: Adenoid removal »

If a child has been having frequent tonsil infections, the doctor might remove the tonsils as well. The tonsils and adenoids are often removed at the same time. Its important for the adenoids to be removed, especially if your child is experiencing repeated infections that lead to sinus and ear infections. Adenoids that are very badly swollen can also lead to infections or middle ear fluid, which can temporarily cause hearing loss.

Your child will be given a mild sedative before surgery to help calm them. They will then be placed under general anesthesia. The surgery lasts no more than two hours.

After the adenoids are removed, your child might experience:

• a sore throat
• earaches
• a blocked nose

Symptoms should clear up in a few weeks.

How Do Tonsils And Adenoids Affect Speech

Speaking with a sore throat can not only be painful, but it changes the quality and tone of your voice. If you or your child has enlarged tonsils, often due to an infection, it can make your voice sound hoarse or muffled and affect the resonance. This can in turn lead to academic problems, especially in children who are learning to read. If the adenoid is enlarged it can increase the likelihood that your voice will have a nasal quality, or sound like you are plugging your nose, because your adenoid is doing the plugging for you. Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy that remove the tonsils and/or adenoid are sometimes the only choices physicians feel patients have in order to return breathing and speaking capabilities to healthy levels. Sometimes it is determined that surgery is not warranted as many children will outgrow these enlarged tissue problems by the time they hit puberty.

Image Courtesy of gosh.nhs.uk

Hearing Loss And Swollen Tonsils

• Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Reviewed on 12/1/2020

Swollen tonsils can occur with tonsillitis, mononucleosis, or other forms of throat infection. Temporary hearing loss can accompany nasal congestion or ear infections. Exposure to loud noise can also lead to temporary hearing loss. If you are troubled by these or other symptoms, discuss all your symptoms with your doctor to determine the cause.

While the list below can be considered as a guide to educate yourself about these conditions, this is not a substitute for a diagnosis from a health care provider. There are many other medical conditions that also can be associated with your symptoms and signs. Here are a number of those from MedicineNet:

Recommended Reading: How To Set Up Signia Hearing Aids

Treatment For Infected Adenoids

What is done to treat infected adenoids depends on whether the child is ill or not, and what other effects the infected adenoids are causing. For example, if a child has a middle ear infection or sinusitis, and the adenoids are swollen, treatment will be aimed at reducing the pain in the ears. Antibiotics will often be used. If these treatments improve the health of the ear or the sinuses, they will usually help get rid of the infection in the adenoids as well. It is rare for ‘infected adenoids’ to be the main reason for treatment.Your doctor may recommend having the adenoids removed if:

• your child has recurrent ear infections, which are interfering with language development
• your child is often unwell
• your child, or an older person, has large adenoids that are interfering with breathing, especially at night.

When To See A Doctor For Adenoids In Children

Says Bohm: If theres frequent nasal congestion and drainage, especially without other symptoms of illness, well usually recommend an evaluation with an X-ray or a small camera in the nasal cavity. Most enlarged adenoid cases present in early childhood, says Bohm.

When this happens they also get inflamed and swollen. This condition is called adenoiditis. It is most commonly seen in children, but sometimes affect adults. What Are the Symptoms of Adenoiditis? Symptoms of adenoiditis can vary depending on what is causing the infection, but may include:

Don’t Miss: Diy Candle Ear Wax Removal

Will Removing Adenoids Stop Snoring

Although less commonly a problem in adults, some adults can receive excellent resolution of snoring through removal of enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids. As opposed to the above office-based procedures, tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy is an outpatient surgery performed in the operating room under general anesthesia.

Recovery After Adenoid Removal

The lack of incision during the surgery means that stitches are unnecessary. The child may feel pain or discomfort in the throat, nose, and ears for several days following surgery.

The doctor may prescribe pain relievers or recommend over-the-counter medications to help relieve any pain. These should never include aspirin, which can increase a childs risk of developing Reyes syndrome.

In general, most children recover from adenoid removal within 12 weeks. Doing the following may help with a childs recovery:

• Offering plenty of fluids to help prevent dehydration. Popsicles may be helpful if the child is not drinking enough or feels sick. If signs of dehydration occur, contact a doctor immediately.
• Eating soft foods can help with a sore throat, but drinking is more important than eating. The child is likely to start eating normally again after a few days.
• Keeping the child home from school or day care until they are eating and drinking normally, no longer need pain medicine, and are sleeping well.
• Avoiding airplane travel for at least 2 weeks after surgery.

A mild fever is typical on the day of surgery, but it is essential to call a doctor if the fever is 102°F or higher or if the child seems very unwell. Some noisy breathing and snoring for up to 2 weeks after surgery is not unusual, but this will usually stop once the swelling subsides.

Don’t Miss: Airpod Hearing Aid Mode

Enlarged Adenoids A Big Cause Of Snoring In Children

It is clinically proved that children with enlarged adenoids generally snore when sleeping. The structure and large size of adenoids interrupts the air when it passes through while sleeping and this interruption causes the sounds which we call snoring. Now, your further question would be what the enlarged adenoids are. So, here is your answer. Enlarged adenoids exist in our mouth. These are tissue lumps that exist near nasal cavity. Behind the nose and above tonsils, the adenoids are found. We cannot see it when looking simply in our mouth.

When To Seek Medical Advice

Contact your GP immediately or go to your nearest A& E if your child has the following symptoms shortly after surgery:

• bright red bleeding from their mouth
• blood in their sick, or black or brown sick
• very high temperature, or they feel hot or shivery
• a lot of pain that does not get better when they take painkillers
• not drinking any fluids

Recommended Reading: How To Put Phonak Hearing Aids In Pairing Mode

What Are Etd Symptoms

• Feeling a popping or clicking sensation
• Trouble keeping the balance
• Ears feeling like they are filled with water

If you are having any of the above symptoms then consult your doctor. Your doctor will confirm whether you have ETD or not.

In case you have ETD than the next step of your doctor is to diagnose it.

Enlarged Tonsils And Adenoids In Children

, MD, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University

• Enlarged tonsils and adenoids in children may result from infections but may be normal.

• Enlargement usually causes no symptoms but can occasionally cause difficulty breathing or swallowing and sometimes recurring ear or sinus infections or obstructive sleep apnea.

• The diagnosis is based on nasopharyngoscopy and sometimes on the results of a sleep study.

• Antibiotics may be used if a bacterial infection is present, and sometimes, if infections are recurring, the tonsils and adenoids are removed.

You May Like: Asl Im Sorry

How An Adenoidectomy Is Done

The adenoids can be removed during an adenoidectomy.

The operation is usually done by an ear, nose and throat surgeon and takes around 30 minutes. Afterwards, your child will need to stay in the recovery ward for up to an hour until the anaesthetic has worn off.

Adenoidectomies are sometimes day cases if they’re done in the morning, in which case your child may be able to go home on the same day. However, if the procedure is done in the afternoon, your child may need to stay in hospital overnight.

How Are Tonsil And Adenoid Diseases Treated

Bacterial infections of the tonsils, especially those caused by streptococcus, are first treated with antibiotics. Removal of the tonsils and/or adenoids may be recommended if there are recurrent infections despite antibiotic therapy, and/or difficulty breathing due to enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids. Such obstruction to breathing causes snoring and disturbed sleep that leads to daytime sleepiness, and may even cause behavioral or school performance problems in some children.

Chronic infections of the adenoids can affect other areas such as the eustachian tubethe passage between the back of the nose and the inside of the ear. This can lead to frequent ear infections and buildup of fluid in the middle ear that may cause temporary hearing loss. Studies also find that removal of the adenoids may help some children with chronic earaches accompanied by fluid in the middle ear .

In adults, the possibility of cancer or a tumor may be another reason for removing the tonsils and adenoids. In some patients, especially those with infectious mononucleosis, severe enlargement may obstruct the airway. For those patients, treatment with steroids is sometimes helpful.

You May Like: Saying Sorry In Sign Language

What Are The Adenoids

They are fleshy lumps of tissue that are out of sight located at the back of the inside of the nose and at the top of the throat.

Together with the tonsils, they trap and destroy germs that enter the childs mouth and nose. They are part of the immune system and help to fight infections.

Everyone is born with adenoids and they are biggest when children are around 3 to 5 years old. They start to shrink when children reach around 5 to 8 years of age. They are usually gone altogether by the time children become teenagers.

What Happens During Surgery

Surgery, no matter how common or simple the procedure, can be frightening for both kids and parents. You can help prepare your child for surgery by talking about what to expect. During the adenoidectomy:

• Your child will receive general anesthesia. This means the surgery will be performed in an operating room so that an anesthesiologist can monitor your child.
• Your child will be asleep for about 20 minutes.
• The surgeon can get to the tonsils and/or the adenoids through your childs open mouth theres no need to cut through skin.
• The surgeon removes the adenoids and then controls any bleeding.

Your child will wake up in the recovery area. In most cases, a child can go home the same day as the procedure. Some children may need to stay overnight for observation.

The typical recuperation after an adenoidectomy often involves several days of moderate pain and discomfort.

In less than a week after surgery, everything should return to normal and the problems caused by the adenoids should be gone. The adenoid area will heal naturally, which means there are no stitches to worry about. Theres a small chance any tissue thats left behind can swell, but it rarely causes new problems.

Reviewed by: Steven P. Cook, MDDate reviewed: May 2013

Note: All information on KidsHealth is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.

Read Also: How To Pair Compilot With Hearing Aids

How Can Doctors Tell If My Childs Tonsils Or Adenoids Are Too Big

The doctor will:

• Look at your child’s tonsils with a tongue depressor when your child sticks out his or her tongue and says “Ah”

• Look at your child’s adenoids using a tiny scope up your childs nose

Doctors may also test for problems that result from big tonsils and adenoids, such as:

• Ear or sinus infections, with blood tests and imaging studies

• Ear fluid buildup, with hearing tests

Your child may lose weight because of trouble breathing while eating. The doctor will compare your child’s weight to standard growth charts to see if the weight loss is a concern.

What Is An Adenoidectomy

An adenoidectomy, or adenoid removal, is surgery to remove the adenoid glands.

While adenoids help protect the body from viruses and bacteria, they sometimes become swollen and enlarged or chronically infected. This can be due to infections, allergies, or other reasons. Some children may also be born with abnormally large adenoids.

When a childs adenoids become enlarged, they can cause problems by partially blocking his or her airway. When this happens, children can have breathing problems, ear infections, or other complications, which can lead to snoring or more serious conditions such as sleep apnea at night.

Chronic nasal drainage, congestion and sinus infections can also be seen. Enlarged adenoids can also affect the recurrence of ear infections and chronic fluid in the ear, which can result in temporary hearing loss.

Surgery to remove the glands is often needed. Removing them has not been shown to affect a childs ability to fight infections.

An adenoidectomy is mostly done for children who are between the ages of 1 and 7. By the time a child is 7, the adenoids begin to shrink, and they are considered a vestigial organ in adults .

Read Also: Sign Language Vagina

Prevent Premature Hearing Loss For Your Child

Adenoids are tissue mass that along with your tonsils help you to keep your mouth or nose healthy by trapping harmful germs. Your adenoids are also responsible for the production of antibodies to fight infections in your body. You can’t see adenoids unlike tonsils, which can be seen easily by opening at your mouth. To see the adenoids, a doctor must use a small mirror or special light instrument. In Oklahoma, pediatric ENT specialists use X-rays to see them better.

Serious Causes And Symptoms For Adenoid Enlargement In Children

It is rightly said that, When a child falls sick, whole family feels sick. We cannot see our child in any kind of pain. Enlargement of adenoids is such a disease which occur mainly in children.

Adenoids are glands which are situated at the nasopharynx i.e. the junction of nasal passage and throat. Thus they are also known as nasopharyngeal tonsils. The function of adenoids is fighting the infections by producing white blood cells.

Adenoids are present only in childhood. They undergo a process of waxing and waning. At birth, only a small adenoid tissue is present, later it undergoes physiological enlargement, upto the age of 6 years and then it begins to shrink. It completely disappears by the age of 15-20 years. This happens because, in childhood our immune system is still developing and also children are more prone to many infections hence this extra protection. As we grow up our immune system builds up and we no longer need this gland.

But sometimes these adenoids get hyper activated and get enlarged. This enlargement may cause dangerous problems. Here are some causes and symptoms of adenoid enlargement, which will help you for the prevention, early identification, and receiving an early medical treatment and will prevent the complications.

Recommended Reading: Does Warm Compress Help Ear Infection

Why Do We Have Adenoids And Tonsils

• The main purpose of adenoids and tonsils is to protect us from infection. They are placed to protect us from antigens from both the outside air and the alimentary tract .
• Adenoids also confusingly called pharyngeal tonsils are also important for the development of normal speech in children:
• They are located behind the soft palate behind the nose. Before puberty, when a child says an oral speech sound such as a vowel or voiced oral consonant , the soft palate rises and touches the adenoids, creating a seal. This stops air from inappropriately coming up through the nose when speaking these sounds. The seal is essential for intelligible speech.
• Adenoids become less important to speech with age. After puberty, at around 15 years of age, the adenoids shrink. At the same time, however, the wall at the back of the throat becomes more vertical. This means the soft palate can touch the back of the throat and maintain a good seal when producing vowels and oral voiced consonants.

Image source: Blausen.com staff. Blausen gallery 2014. Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN20018762. See:

How Are Enlarged Adenoids Diagnosed

The doctor will first ask about the symptoms your child is experiencing. Then your child will receive a physical exam. The doctor will use a special mirror and insert a small, flexible telescope through the nose to view the adenoids.

Depending on what your doctor finds, your child may need a blood test to check for infection. In some cases, an X-ray exam of the throat may be necessary.

In severe cases, your child may need to undergo a sleep study. This will determine if theyre suffering from sleep apnea. During the study, your child will sleep overnight at a facility while their breathing and brain activity are monitored using electrodes. The study is painless, but it can be difficult for some children to sleep in a strange place.

The Healthline FindCare tool can provide options in your area if you need help finding a pediatrician.

Read Also: How To Teach Yourself Sign Language