Throat

If salivary glands in your mouth don't produce enough saliva, you have a condition we call "dry mouth." It can be uncomfortable. It can lead to problems with your mouth and teeth.

This condition is a swelling of the thyroid gland, a gland in the neck that produces hormones to regulate metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. Goiters occur most commonly in women over the age of 40. A goiter is not the same as thyroid cancer.

Swallowing is a complex process. It begins in your throat, and it ends as food or liquid is pushed into your stomach. A problem at any step along the way can make swallowing hard for you.

This condition, which is most common in people who have chronic tonsil infections, is a hardened buildup of debris in the pockets of the tonsils. Tonsil stones are not usually harmful. People who have them are often not aware of them.

This condition is an infection of the tonsils (the large lymph glands at the back of the throat). Tonsils normally help protect against infection, but they can become overwhelmed by viruses or bacteria. Tonsillitis occurs most often in children and rarely in adults.

This condition occurs as a result of an interruption of nerve impulses to the larynx. Vocal cord paralysis can affect speech, allow food and liquids to enter the lungs, and create difficulty in breathing.

It's important to keep your voice healthy. Teachers, singers, salespeople and others who rely heavily on their voices need to know how to keep the voice strong. So let's take a few moments to learn about proper voice care.

This is a growth on one of your vocal cords (also known as the "vocal folds"). The cords are muscular bands in your throat that vibrate to produce sound. A polyp may look like a swollen bump or a blister, or even a thin, long growth. It can change the way your voice sounds.

This voice disorder causes spasms in the muscles of your larynx (that's your voice box) as you speak. These spasms can cause your voice to sound tight, strained or breathy. You may have spasms so frequently that it's hard for others to understand what you're saying. Spasmodic dysphonia is a chronic condition. That means once you develop it, you have it for the rest of your life.

This is an abnormal softness of the larynx (that's the voice box). With laryngomalacia, the tissue above the vocal cords is floppy. It can fold over and partially block the airway. This causes noisy breathing and other issues. In most cases, a baby is born with this condition. But it can also develop soon after birth.

This condition makes it hard for you to speak clearly. This happens because you have trouble controlling the muscles that are used for talking. Let's take a moment to learn more.

This surgery treats a condition called "laryngomalacia." That's a softness of the larynx (the voice box). We do this surgery to help with breathing, especially during sleep.

This surgery removes the tonsils and adenoid. These glands are found at the back of the throat and nose. Often, we remove them to help open the airway and make breathing easier, especially during sleep. We also do this surgery when the glands keep getting infected.

This surgery removes the adenoid. That's a gland at the back of the throat, directly behind the nose. We may remove it to help with ear and sinus infections. We may remove it to open the airway and make breathing easier, especially during sleep. In many cases, we do this surgery along with a tonsillectomy. That's a surgery to remove the tonsils.