What To Expect At Your First ENT Appointment

Your ENT doctor is the best health professional to see for a range of conditions affecting the ear, nose and throat. While many will first visit an ENT due to hearing health issues, such as hearing loss or earwax impactions, the nature of your first appointment will be affected by what kind of conditions you are seeking to have treated.

You may wonder how your first appointment is going to go, however. For that reason, here is some important information that will help you feel comfortable and prepared for your first appointment.

Before your appointment

If you want to make sure that you’re as prepared for your ENT appointment as possible, then it’s wise to make sure that you have a few things in order before you come into the office. If you have been referred to them by another doctor, such as a general physician, ensure you bring any relevant medical information to your first appointment. 

You should also be ready to fill in paperwork at the office, including bringing your insurance card, so arrive around fifteen minutes early to provide this information. You might also want to make a note of any medications that you are using, whether it’s prescription medication or regular use of over-the-counter medication. Similarly, you may want to note down any health conditions that have affected you recently.

Meeting the ENT

After you have completed all the necessary paperwork at the front desk, you will be called in to see your ENT doctor in a private examination room. This is when the ENT will find out, through conversation, about your medical history, including details about your current health, the reason for the visit, current and recent symptoms, as well as any other applicable information.

After this, the ENT will perform a physical examination. Depending on the symptoms affecting you and the reason for your visit, the nature of the examination will change, but they will typically involve looking at the ears, nose or throat (or multiple.) For instance, if there is an issue affecting your hearing, they may use an otoscope to look inside the outer ear and they may perform a hearing test. The examination tools used during this part of the treatment will be entirely safe and are only used to help the ENT doctor get a look at hard-to-reach places.

Putting together a treatment plan

Depending on what the ENT doctor finds during their physical examination, they may be able to diagnose you immediately. They may have the information needed to both make a diagnosis and begin discussing the best next steps to take in order to help treat the condition. This might include additional testing, the use of medication or other equipment that can be used to treat it.

Typically, your ENT doctor will begin with the least invasive options, such as prescription medication or a lifestyle change. If those recommendations do not work, then you may need to come back for a follow-up treatment for a different approach. If the treatment plan dictates that surgery is necessary, some of these surgeries can be performed in the office.

Whether you need additional tests, prescription medication or any other form of treatment, your ENT doctor is going to be there to make sure that you get the highest quality of care. However, if there are any aspects of treatment that are beyond the capability of providing, they can make sure you are referred to the right specialists to handle it while still managing your case in the long term.

Reasons to see your ENT doctor

There are a variety of reasons why an ENT doctor might be the most suitable health professional for you. They can include issues such as the following:

• Nose issues such as deviated septums, allergy issues, sinus headaches and more.
• Ear issues such as hearing loss, earwax impactions, tinnitus and balance issues such as dizziness and vertigo.
• Throat issues such as sore throats, reflux diseases and any other problems related to your airways.
• Other conditions such as medical conditions that have caused symptoms or changes in the face or neck.

To learn more about how an ENT doctor can help you and the conditions that they can help you treat, you can learn more by visiting the various pages on our website or you can get in touch with the team at ENT Physicians Inc. directly by calling us on (419) 318-4987