What is your throat doing?
Your throat can help you talk, breathe and swallow. It is located at the back of the throat and at the top of the trachea or on the trachea. It contains your vocal cords, which vibrate to make a sound when you speak.
What is a laryngoscopy?
The procedure by which a doctor uses a small device (laryngoscope) to observe and check for abnormalities in the throat is called laryngoscopy.
When do you need a laryngoscopy?
When you have difficulty breathing or swallowing; something stuck in your throat; persistent sore throat; need to check for signs of serious health problems that may be cancer; eliminate growth, etc., doctors use a laryngoscope to check if you appear The cause of these symptoms can also be removed from your throat or taken after taking your tissue sample.
When doctors need to study other parts of the throat and throat or insert a tube into the trachea to help with breathing, they use a small hand tool called a laryngoscope.
Several types of laryngoscopy:
- Indirect laryngoscopy. This is the simplest form. Your doctor uses a small mirror and a light to shine into your throat. The mirror grows on a long handle, like the dentist often uses it, on the top of the mouth.
The doctor illuminates the light into your mouth and sees the image in the mirror, which takes only 5 to 10 minutes.
- Direct fiber laryngoscopes, sometimes called flexible laryngoscopy, are often used by modern doctors. At the end of the cable of the fiberoptic laryngoscope is a small telescope that goes down from the nose into your throat.
It takes less than 10 minutes. The doctor will use an appropriate amount of anesthetic in your nose to open the nasal passages, and the same effect can be achieved with decongestants. Vomiting is a common reaction in this process.
- Direct laryngoscopy. This is the most complicated type. Your doctor uses a laryngoscope to push down your tongue and lift the epiglottis (covering the cartilage flap of the trachea). It opens during breathing and closes during swallowing.
Your doctor can do this to remove the small growth or tissue samples for testing. He can also use this procedure to insert a tube into the trachea to help the patient breathe in an emergency or surgery.
Direct laryngoscopy is longer than the first two and takes approximately 45 minutes. You will be using general anesthesia so that you won’t wake up during the surgery. Your doctor can take out any growth in the throat by direct laryngoscopy or take a sample that may require closer inspection.
Follow-up care
You can breathe in ice water or rinse with salt water to relieve a sore throat. Over-the-counter painkillers or throat lozenges can also help you.