Your tonsils are found at the back of your throat and are the oval-shaped pads of tissue on either side. Used to treat recurring, chronic, or severe tonsilitis, complications from enlarged tonsils, bleeding tonsils, or other rare diseases of the tonsils, tonsillectomy is the surgical removal of your tonsils.

It typically takes ten days to two weeks to recover from a tonsillectomy.

Your adenoid glands are located above the roof of your mouth, behind your nose. They look like small lumps and have a very important job when you’re a child–they help protect the immune system and protect bodies from viruses and bacteria. Adenoids are almost completely gone by the time you’re a teenager and begin to shrink around age 5 - 7.

An adenoidectomy is a surgical procedure that removes your adenoids because they have become enlarged or swollen due to an allergy or infection. Done as an outpatient procedure, your adenoidectomy will be performed while under general anesthesia. Your ENT surgeon will open your mouth with a retractor to remove the adenoids and may use an electrical device to stop any bleeding.

Most patients return home on the day of their surgery.

Vocal cord and laryngeal surgeries are used to treat people who have experienced vocal cord paralysis or laryngeal stenosis, as well as to reshape the larynx. Laryngeal surgery can also treat those who have had cancer that has caused nerve damage or trauma to their larynx.

This surgery is performed when you’re under local anesthesia so your ENT surgeon can talk to you and make real-time adjustments to correct your voice.

An endoscopy is a procedure that allows your ENT surgeon to take a look inside your body. Your surgeon will use it to diagnose diseases in your ears, nose, and throat. Endoscopies can be done in our clinics or the operating room, and our high-definition endoscopy allows us to see even more closely. 

During an endoscopy, an endoscope will be inserted into your body. This thin tube with a tiny camera and a powerful light at the end provides your surgeon with the information they need to screen for cancers, diagnose diseases, or give certain treatments.

If your ENT surgeon has identified a salivary gland tumor, surgery is often the main treatment. The surgical treatment options for salivary gland tumors include: 

• Minor salivary gland cancer surgery - this cancer type can be found in your inner cheek, lips, nose, palate, sinuses, throat, tongue, or voice box. Surgery will involve removing cancer and some of the surrounding tissue.
• Lymph node removal - salivary gland cancers tend to spread to the lymph nodes in your neck before they spread elsewhere. When your ENT surgeon is removing cancer, they will remove your lymph nodes to contain or slow down the spread of cancer.
• Parotidectomy - this surgery is used to remove a cancerous or benign tumor in your parotid glands. Surgical excellence and precision are required for this surgery as the facial nerve and other key structures are nearby.
• Sublingual gland excision - this surgery removes (excises) your entire sublingual gland, which is found underneath your tongue on either side of the floor of your mouth. An incision will be made to remove the gland along with some of your surrounding tissue before the gap is closed with stitches or a graft.
• Submandibular gland excision - your submandibular glands are found just below your jaw. To treat a tumor here, your ENT surgeon will remove the affected gland, being careful not to affect the marginal mandibular nerve, the lingual nerve, or the hypoglossal nerve.

Recovery varies person by person and some people who have undergone salivary gland surgery recover within weeks, while others may need months.

If you have a medical condition that has blocked or narrowed your airway, one that makes it necessary for you to use a breathing machine, or paralysis/neurological problems that make it difficult to cough up secretions from your throat, a tracheostomy may be suggested.

During a tracheostomy, your ENT surgeon will make a hole through the front of your neck and into your windpipe before placing a tracheostomy tube to keep the hole open for breathing. When/if your tracheostomy is no longer needed, it will be allowed to heal shut or be surgically closed.