What Is a Tongue Depressor?

The two-sided circular thin wood chips used by doctors are mainly used for the inspection of the pharynx and are necessary inspection tools for doctors. Tongue depressor is a device used to press down the tongue to check the surrounding organs and tissues. There are varieties of bamboo, plastic, and wood.

[y shé bn, y shé qì]

The two-sided circular thin wood chips used by doctors are mainly used for the inspection of the pharynx and are necessary inspection tools for doctors. Tongue depressor is used to press down

Pinyin: yshébn

English: tonguedepressor; tongueblade

Today's tongue depressors are commonly made of wood, but also stainless steel. Early iron-based. Because wood reflects the single-use hygiene requirements, wooden tongue depressors are the most common and commonly used.

Otolaryngology

Because the ear, nose, throat, and throat are deep and small cavities, special lighting devices and inspection equipment must be used for inspection. Commonly used are 100-watt inspection lights with condenser lenses, frontal mirrors (concave concave reflectors), and ears. Mirror, tympanoscope, gun-like tweezers, cotton swabs, crochet hook, tongue depressor, front nose mirror, rear nose mirror, indirect laryngoscope, tuning fork, sprayer, etc.

Nasal cavity and sinus examination

Anterior rhinoscopy. The examiner put the front nose into the nasal vestibule, opened the upper and lower leaves, enlarged the front nostril, and inspected the nasal septum, lower turbinate, middle turbinate, common nasal passage, lower nasal passage, middle nasal passage, and olfactory fissure. posterior rhinoscopy. The examiner holds the tongue depressor on the left and presses the front 2/3 of the tongue, and sends the posterior nose between the soft palate and the posterior wall of the pharynx, and checks the posterior nostrils, the turbinate and the trailing edge of the nasal passage, and the eustachian tube. Pharyngeal crypt and top of nasopharynx. sinus examination. Including observation of the cheeks, palpation of the cheeks, orbital upper corners, etc., to know if there is tenderness, bulging, etc., maxillary sinus puncture and irrigation can help diagnose maxillary sinus inflammation or other diseases. Sinus radiographs are often used to diagnose sinus disorders. Hard tube and hose nasal endoscopy. Can inspect various parts of the nasal cavity in detail, observe the openings of the sinuses, and perform nasal cavity and sinus surgery.

Pharyngeal examination

Oropharyngeal examination. Use a tongue depressor to gently press 2/3 of the patient's front of the tongue, check the tonsils, lingual arch, pharyngeal arch, and posterior wall of the pharynx to observe the soft palate activity. nasopharyngeal examination. See posterior rhinoscopy. In addition, a flexible light-guided nasopharyngeal fiberscope can be used to observe the entire picture of the nasopharynx, and can be biopsied or filmed. throat examination. See Indirect Throat Examination.

Laryngeal examination

Indirect laryngoscopy. Ask the examinee to open their mouth and stretch their tongue. The examiner pinches the front of the tongue with gauze and pulls it out. Put the indirect laryngoscope into the pharynx, check the root of the tongue, tongue tonsil, epiglottis, laryngo-pharynx, etc., and then let the patient The sound of "clothing" can be observed in the epiglottis, the epiglottis, the intercondylar area, the piriformis, the ventricles and the vocal cords, and the vocal cord movement can be observed. Direct laryngoscopy. Examination is performed under surface or general anesthesia. The subject lies on his back with his head down and puts a direct laryngoscope to see the epiglottis. fiber laryngoscopy. The flexible fiber laryngoscope is placed through the nasal cavity or through the mouth. This kind of inspection method is less painful and can inspect various parts of the throat in detail. microlaryngoscopy. It is used to examine the larynx and perform fine surgery. Its advantages are simultaneous operation with both hands. After general anesthesia and tracheal intubation, the operation is performed under the operating microscope.

Ear examination method The examiner uses one hand to pull the auricle back and upward to straighten the external auditory canal, and the other hand uses the index finger to push the tragus forward to enlarge the ear canal, and inspects the ear canal and eardrum. For those with long ear hair or large ear canal curvature, you can insert an otoscope into the ear canal for examination. The electric otoscope has a light source and a magnifying glass, which can more closely observe the eardrum. Drum air otoscope can observe the movement of the eardrum.

Trachea and esophagoscopy

rigid tube bronchoscopy. Can check the general trachea, left and right bronchi, and the bronchial openings of each leaf, which are mostly used to remove foreign objects. fiber bronchoscopy. Because of its thin mirror tube, the patient has less pain, can enter deeper and thinner bronchus for examination, and can observe the upper bronchi. Used to observe lesions, take biopsies, and take out smaller foreign bodies. rigid tube esophagoscopy. Used to observe esophageal lesions, take biopsies and remove foreign bodies. fiber esophagoscopy. Thanks to equipment such as inflation and irrigation, the esophageal lesions can be observed more clearly and used for biopsy, as well as smaller foreign bodies.