Eustachian Tube Dilation

If you’ve suffered for a long time from a feeling of fullness, pressure, or pain in your ears, you may be suffering from eustachian tube dysfunction.

What are eustachian tubes?

Eustachian tubes are a small canal that connects your middle ear to the back of your nose and throat. Their job is to balance air pressure between your middle ear and the outside environment. Anytime you swallow, yawn, sneeze, or chew food, your eustachian tubes will open to prevent pressure from building up inside your ears.

If your eustachian tubes are not functioning, this means they aren’t opening or closing correctly, which leads to unbalanced air pressure. Some potential causes of eustachian tube dysfunction are colds, allergies, smoking, or changes in air pressure.

Treatment Options

While most eustachian tube dysfunction resolves itself on its own, if you’re dealing with severe symptoms for a long period of time, our ENT surgeons may recommend Eustachian Tube Dilation.

Eustachian Tube Dilation is a minimally invasive surgery where your ENT surgeon will place a saline balloon in your eustachian tube. They will then inflate the balloon and leave it there for a couple of minutes before deflating the balloon and removing it. The inflation of the balloon clears any blockages you may have and opens your eustachian tube.

This is a simple outpatient procedure that only takes around 30 minutes. You will be able to go home the same day as surgery with some post-op instructions to follow. Normally, you will be back to your routine activities in a day or two. Our ENT surgeons will schedule follow-up appointments after surgery to ensure all is healing well and answer any questions you may have.

Find Relief

You don’t have to continue to deal with ear fullness, pain, or pressure. Schedule an appointment today with one our Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons, Dr. Justin Oltman or Dr. Eric Rohe. Call (402) 844-8275 to see one of our providers in Norfolk.