What Is Nasal Airway Obstruction (NAO)?
Do you regularly feel like you can’t breathe easily through your nose? Maybe it’s affecting your quality of sleep, or you find it hard to exercise. If so, you may have a common and often undiagnosed condition called nasal airway obstruction, or NAO.
Common Symptoms of Nasal Obstruction:
- Trouble breathing through your nose, or a “blocked” feeling
- Nasal congestion
- Difficulty sleeping, leading to fatigue
- Struggling to breathe through your nose during exercise
- Frequent “mouth breathing”
Learn about how VivAer works here.
What Is Chronic Rhinitis?
Does it feel like your nose runs or feels stuffed up almost every single day? Or do you have what feels like constant post-nasal drip, congestion, nasal/throat itching, and sneezing? If so, you may be one of the millions of people with chronic rhinitis, a common but often undiagnosed condition. While chronic rhinitis does share some symptoms with seasonal allergies, its sufferers typically deal with these issues all year long.
Common Symptoms of Chronic Rhinitis:
- Constant running nose
- Persistent post-nasal drip that leads to clearing of throat, coughing, or an “itchy throat” feeling
- Frequent “stuffed up” feeling
- Excessive sneezing
Learn how RhinAer works here.
Skin testing for allergies
There are multiple techniques for allergy testing, including in vivo and in vitro modalities, available to confirm or identify aeroallergen allergic disease as well as the level of sensitivity. It is important to have a technique that is standardized with the use of appropriate controls to be reproducible, sensitive, and specific. Skin testing techniques for immediate and delayed sensitivity are of vital importance and the mainstay of testing to identify and confirm allergic disease.
- Scratch Testing (Scratch) is a technique that is less sensitive, more painful, not reproducible, and not recommended for diagnostic testing.
- Prick Testing Prick (Prick) and intradermal testing are the preferred techniques for IgE–mediated hypersensitivity with the use of a relatively non-traumatic introducer device. Reproducible results need to be obtained based on the location of testing on the body, potency of allergen extracts, and the proficiency of the skin tester.
- Intradermal Testing (IDT) both single intradermal and intradermal dilutional testing is a specific and likely more sensitive means to detect sensitivity, compared to prick testing.
- Modified Quantitative Testing (MQT) is an accurate and more cost–effective method of testing than intradermal dilutional testing while still obtaining quantitative results.
At ENTOffice.org, we use #4 or the MQT. The use of quantitative testing aids in improving patient care by facilitating the accurate diagnosis of aero– allergen disease.
Balloon Sinuplasty
Learn about balloon sinuplasty here.