If adenoids are left untreated it can cause obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, chronic mouth breathing, frequent ear and sinus infections, fluid in the middle ear, bad breath, hearing loss, and even issues with facial and dental development as a result of constant nasal blockage, which leads to poor sleep, fatigue and even behavioral problems.
However adenoids even when left untreated often naturally shrink on their own naturally in your teens.
Adenoids that are left untreated can sometimes cause blocked Eustachian tubes, fluid buildup, recurrent ear infections and temporary hearing loss.
And adenoids that are left untreated can sometimes cause runny nose, chronic sinus infections and congestion and mouth breathing from adenoids can affect your jaw and mid face growth, causing crowded or protruding teeth and saliva evaporation from mouth breathing also allows bacterial overgrowth.
Sleep disturbances like restless sleep, waking up gasping, daytime fatigue, hyperactivity or irritability and loud breathing, snoring, and pauses in breathing during sleep, also known as sleep apnea and difficulty breathing through the nose, leading to mouth breathing can occur in untreated adenoids in some cases.
When adenoids are removed it also significantly improves your sense of smell as enlarged adenoids obstruct your nasal passage by more than 50 percent and causes reduced smell and taste and removing the enlarged adenoids helps to restore smell and taste.
Removing the adenoids opens your airway and allows for better detection of smells as enlarged adenoids often cause chronic nasal congestion and mouth breathing, which also limit your ability to taste and smell.
Adenoid removal will also help breathing by opening up the airway.
Removing the enlarged adenoids, clears the nasal airway, which allows for easier and direct nasal breathing.
Removing adenoids through an adenoidectomy is a very common and high effective procedure that improves breathing by reducing nasal blockage and opening the airway and decreasing mouth breathing, especially in children.
Removing adenoids also helps to alleviate snoring, restless sleep and even obstructive symptoms that are caused by enlarged or chronically infected adenoids.
Common reasons for adenoid removal are chronic nasal obstruction, "mouth breathing", sleep apnea or snoring, frequent ear infections or fluid also known as otitis media and chronic sinus infections also known as rhinosinusitis.
The long term effects of adenoid removal in children are a potential increase long term risks of allergic diseases, infectious diseases, respiratory infections, and a higher although sometimes small, risk of the child developing conditions like COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis and sinusitis as the child's immune systems early development is affected after adenoid removal in children.
Removing your adenoids does affect the immune system, but removing your adenoids does not weaken your immune system significantly, as other parts of your immune system will take over.
Your body has other immune tissues like your lymph nodes and tonsils that learn to recognize germs and produce antibodies and the remaining lymphoid tissue can take over the function, and immune markers often also return to normal levels over time.
After your adenoids are removed, what happens is that you often experience some temporary discomfort including ear pain, bad breath, sore throat, voice changes and stuffy nose as the area where the adenoids were heals.
Healing after adenoids are removed often takes 1 to 2 weeks.
Although the worst pain after the adenoids are removed should go away within the first 2 days after the adenoids are removed.
The surgery to remove the adenoids also improves your breathing issues like sleep apnea and snoring long term.
During recovery after adenoid removal surgery, you need to manage the pain properly and stay hydrated for a smoother recovery.
Your immune function is also minimally affected after adenoid removal, but you should also monitor for any severe bleeding or dehydration.
The common symptoms during the first 1 to 2 weeks during recovery after adenoid removal includes.
Nausea and or vomiting within the first 24 hours, fatigue, small specks of blood in your mucus or saliva.
A low grade fever up to 101.5 F can happen and is normal during recovery of adenoid removal.
Voice changes like a muffled or nasal or higher pitched voice can also occur after adenoid removal, although it usually resolves itself within a few weeks.
You may also have a stuffy nose, runny nose or even an increase in congestion as the area where the adenoids were removed heals.
And a sore throat, ear pain, "referred pain" and neck soreness are also common during the recovery of adenoid removal surgery.
To manage pain after adenoids are removed, give or take pain medication as prescribed, even if you or the person seems fine, which prevents spikes in pain.
And drink or give plenty of fluids, like water and clear liquids to avoid dehydration and if you or someone has darker urine it's a sign that you need to drink more water and fluids.
After your adenoids are removed you want to eat soft foods initially, although chewing is still encouraged as your appetite returns, but avoid spicy, crunchy or acidic foods, which can irritate your throat.
And rest and stay home from school or work for a few days to a week after the adenoid removal and avoid crowded places to prevent an infection and avoid swimming or strenuous activity for around 2 weeks after your adenoids have been removed to prevent infection.
Removing your adenoids does not weaken your immune system significantly, as other parts of your immune system will take over.
The main benefit of removing adenoids are to improve breathing, improve sleep and reduce ear infections.
If you notice any bright red blood from the nose or mouth or blood clots, have difficulty breathing, have signs of dehydration like no tears or sunken eyes and no urine for 8 or more hours or have a high fever of over 102 F that does not respond to medication you should seek immediate medical care.