tonsils and adenoids vs tubes in ears (cold, infections, sore)

[magoomafoo]

My son had extreme hearing loss. Took him to Dr. who suggested tubes in his ears. Had the surgery two years ago. Hearing was good at first but has slowly decreased. Son had sore throat this week so I took him into different Dr. who said his tonsils and adenoids were extremely enlarged and needed to be removed. He stated that he thought this might be contributing to the hearing loss. Our insurance will not require us to pay for the second surgery IF the same surgery has to be performed twice. Because the tubes in the ears didn't fix the problem and the Dr. didn't catch the enlarged tonsils and adenoids and now a second surgery to do so is required, isn't that kind of the same thing? I mean it was an ear-nose and throat specialist who performed the first surgery, shouldn't he have caught this? It could've all been done at once. I'm not too happy about having to pay the deductible for surgery twice.

[southbel]

Daughter had same thing. Tubes in the ears are to drain the fluid that can sometimes collect in the eustachean tubes due to a variety of things, sometimes as simple as a bad cold where the ears didn't clear up well. The next step in this, if the tubes do not completely resolve the issue, is to remove the adenoids and tonsils if they are causing recurrent infections. The reason the doctor did not remove them initially was likely because they didn't need to be removed initially. As your son gets more and more infections, the tonsils can become enlarged and not go back to normal after illness.

For my daughter, this partially resolved her issues, but even at 14 (she had the surgery at 6), she can have occasional hearing issues. She needs a decongestant if there is even a hint of a sniffle or else she will suffer bad hearing loss. One thing I noticed is that she stopped snoring after getting her adenoids and tonsils removed and seems to breathe quieter. In addition, the child never gets sick anymore - a definite bonus.

[pinetreelover]

Tonsils and adenoids change with time - typically biggest during the preschool years when kids have the most respiratory tract infections and then shrink during the teen years. I don't think the first ENT "missed" it, they just weren't a problem two years ago.

Tonsils are frequently enlarged when a child is sick with a sore throat or even just a cold. I wouldn't base "enlarged tonsils" that need to come out on one exam when a child was sick.

Removing the tonsils and adenoids will not improve hearing loss though it might reduce upper airway congestion.