Whenever something in our body grows larger than it is supposed to, we start panicking. When it comes to adenoids, mostly it is for good reason as enlarged adenoids are common and largely harmless.
Adenoids, like tonsils, are tiny pieces of lymphatic tissue that sit in the passage that connects the back of the nasal cavity to the throat. Found hanging above the tonsils, adenoids also play an integral role in the body’s immune system.
What Do Adenoids Do?
Adenoids grow in a child until around age 5, stay the same size, and then start shrinking after around age 7. By the time you turn sixteen, adenoids essentially disappear which is also why enlarged adenoids in adults are rare.
The function of tonsils and adenoids is to help combat infections in the body. They are crucial in a child’s immunity between birth and age 5 because sitting at the entrance of the throat, they are most likely to absorb bacteria and viruses that enter the body via the nasopharynx.
After age 5, they have little to no role in the body’s health.
Causes Of Adenoid Enlargement
The most common reason behind enlarged adenoids is an infection. Since they play a primary role in a child’s immune system, they are one of the first lymphatic tissues to respond, and therefore, they swell.
This is completely normal and cannot be prevented. Similarly, children are more prone to allergies which results in similar adenoid enlargement.
In some children, they do not shrink in size after age 5 whereas some others are born with enlarged adenoids.
In a lot of cases, swollen adenoids do not return to their normal size after the infection subsides. While all these are not causes for immediate panic, it is better to be safe and get it checked.
Frequent infections in the head, throat, or ears, tonsil infections, and swollen tonsils are major risk factors for enlarged adenoids.
If your child repeatedly gets sick, chances are their adenoids are regularly swollen which can become a nuisance at one point.
Enlarged adenoids in adults are rare but may occur due to chronic infection or allergy, pollution, or excessive smoking.
Symptoms Of Enlarged Adenoids
Adenoids sit above the roof of your mouth and any swelling obstructs the airway. Consequently, people with adenoid enlargement breathe through their mouth during sleep, resulting in symptoms like a sore throat, bad breath, mouth dryness, and chapped lips.
Other frequent symptoms of enlarged adenoids include:
- Nasal congestion and runny nose
- A feeling of blocked ears
- Restless sleeping
- Sleeping with head back and knees to the chest
- Swelling of neck glands
- Snoring
Addressing the underlying infection is enough to alleviate these symptoms but leaving it unresolved can develop this problem into the major, but rare, complications such as sleep apnea and middle ear infections.
Sleep apnea is characterized by brief and regular periods where your air supply is cut off during sleep and since adenoids guard the airway, swelling affects that path. Additionally, enlarged adenoids can affect hearing because of fluid buildup in the middle ear that becomes a hub of infections.
If the swollen adenoids do not shrink on their own for a long time, the risk of developing these two complications is why you should seek medical help.
Diagnosing Adenoid Enlargement
If you have a stuffy nose, sore throat, and your ears hurt, you should inform your primary care physician during medical history. If they suspect adenoid enlargement, they will perform a physical exam where they insert a thin endoscope with a mirror down your nose into the throat. Albeit uncomfortable, it is not a painful process.
While tonsils can be viewed directly, adenoids are not that visible, requiring this procedure. Should the need arise, the doctor would order an X-Ray for a better view and run blood tests to identify the infection that caused the enlarged adenoids.
If there are any symptoms of significant sleep disturbance, including sleep apnea, they can run a sleep study and if adenoid enlargement is identified as the cause behind it, a referral to an ENT specialist for adenoid removal is routine.
Treating Swollen Adenoids
In most people, no treatment is required and the enlarged adenoids return to normal on their own. Maintaining a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, and proper hydration nourish the immune system, minimizing the likelihood of adenoid enlargement.
When a doctor identifies enlarged adenoids, they first observe their progress for a couple of weeks to see if they shrink. If that does not happen, they prescribe over-the-counter antibiotics and nasal steroid sprays to treat the underlying infection and reduce the size of adenoids respectively.
The best treatment depends on the child’s age, and surgery is only considered if there are frequent ear and throat infections and sleep apnea and no treatment seems to be working.
Surgical removal of adenoids (adenoidectomy) is an easy, 30-minute procedure with a recovery period of only one week. Usually, the tonsils are removed with the adenoids in a procedure collectively called an adenotonsillectomy.
Since the adenoids play no role in adult life, removing them is inherently harmless.
Conclusion
Adenoid enlargement is very common in children and more often than not, it is completely normal. The only situations where it should be alarming is if it affects breathing during sleep and hearing but either way, this is easily treatable. If anything, an adenoidectomy can be an excuse for your child to binge on ice cream for a week after surgery.
