One of the most common medical problems that kids ages 6 months to 8 years old face is ear infections. When ear infections become a recurring problem, your child may be referred to a pediatric otolaryngologist – a pediatric ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.
Pediatric ENT doctors specialize in ears, nose, and throat disorders, specifically in kids, and can help determine the cause of your child’s ears, nose, and throat issues and offer solutions to keep your child from pain and potential hearing loss. MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach is the leading Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) Program, providing a family centered care approach to all diagnostic evaluations and ENT surgical therapy for children of all ages. It’s important to have a dedicated pediatric ENT care team, who attend additional years of higher education and training to study how to properly care for bodies that are still growing and developing.
Many times, a small surgery is needed to help a child suffering from an ear, nose, or throat condition, and Pediatric ENT doctors are specifically trained to do just that. The most common procedures performed by otolaryngologists are:
- Tube placement in the ears: This procedure is often performed as a treatment for severe cases of middle ear infection, or cases of recurrent infection, by making a small incision in the eardrum and placing a tiny tube across this incision. Tube placement is the most common childhood surgery and is highly effective.
- Tonsillectomies: A surgical procedure that removes the infected and swollen tonsils.
- Tympanoplasties: Also called eardrum repair, is a surgical procedure that reconstructs a perforated eardrum or the small bones of the middle ear.
If it is determined that your child will need surgery for their ears, nose, or throat, your pediatric otolaryngologist will be working with the entire ENT care team including pediatric nurses, pediatric anesthesiologists, pediatric doctors, and more.
Along with the added benefits of having a pediatric surgical center, comes the Cherese Marie Laulhere Child Life Program, a team who helps lessen the fears and anxieties of surgery.
When a child arrives at Miller Children’s & Women’s for their surgery and throughout the process, a child life specialist uses medical play in pre-op playrooms to help teach them about the surgery to help make them feel prepared and know what to expect.
In addition, a children’s hospital, like Miller Children’s & Women’s, usually allows one parent to go back with their child as they are placed under sedation to help lessen their anxieties. This, along with all of the features dedicated to care for kids is why it’s beneficial to have a children’s hospital right in your own backyard.
At Miller Children’s & Women’s, we’re dedicated exclusively to the quality and compassionate care of kids. We are one of eight free-standing children’s hospitals in California, and the only one of its kind in a major health system, such as MemorialCare.