Is nasal endoscopy painful?

Many clinical diseases require specialized medical examinations to be diagnosed, which can avoid misdiagnosis as much as possible. Nasal endoscopy is also a common medical examination in clinical practice. When abnormalities occur in the patient's nasal passages or nasal cavity, other examinations can be used to identify the disease. The nasal endoscope is very hard, which is why it is possible that a nasal endoscopy may cause great discomfort to the patient. Most people are afraid when undergoing nasal endoscopy, worrying that it will be very painful. During nasal endoscopy, patients may feel some discomfort, but the pain may not be very obvious.

1. No obvious pain

Nasal endoscopy is performed under surface anesthesia. There is generally no obvious pain during the examination. Before the examination, the patient should inform the doctor of the history of drug allergies to avoid allergies to anesthetic drugs. During the examination, the patient should relax, breathe through the mouth, cooperate with the doctor, and be careful not to move the head to avoid damaging the nasal mucosa during the examination. During the examination, the patient usually sits with the head fixed and looking straight ahead. Before the examination, the doctor will first check the anterior nostrils and nasal vestibule for abnormalities, and then observe the nasal cavity, nasopharynx, nasal passages and other parts in a certain order.

2. Inspection process

Generally, the nasal endoscope is first slowly pushed backward along the floor of the nose from the common nasal meatus, while observing the color and size of the inferior turbinate, and whether there are any abnormalities in the common and inferior nasal meatus. After passing through the posterior nasal aperture, it enters the nasopharynx, and observes whether there are neoplasms on the posterior wall of the nasopharyngeal roof, lateral walls, pharyngeal recesses, and Eustachian tube occipital, whether there are local protrusions, whether the surface is rough, and whether the Eustachian tube opening is blocked. Then the nasal endoscope is slowly withdrawn outwards, the lens is slightly lifted upwards, and the openings of the sphenoid sinus, olfactory fissure, middle nasal meatus, maxillary sinus, and ethmoid sinus are observed to see whether there are any abnormalities such as neoplasms, purulent secretions, and bleeding. Finally, the front end of the nasal septum is observed when withdrawing the nasal endoscope.

3. Purpose

In case of long-term nasal congestion, especially unilateral nasal congestion, nasal endoscopy can be used to determine whether there is abnormality in the nasal cavity structure or nasal neoplasms; if there is a lot of nasal secretions, especially if there is blood in the secretions, nasal endoscopy can be used to determine the source of the secretions; in case of nose bleeding, the bleeding point can be found under nasal endoscopy for further hemostasis; endoscopic examination of olfactory dysfunction can determine whether there is a lesion in the olfactory nerve receptor area; respired nasal discharge with blood can be examined under nasal endoscopy to rule out the possibility of tumors such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma; a lump found in the neck may be a metastatic lymph node of a nasopharyngeal tumor, and a nasal endoscopy can be performed to examine the nasopharynx to determine the primary lesion; in addition, some unexplained headaches, diplopia, etc. may also be caused by lesions of the nose and nasopharynx, which can be ruled out by nasal endoscopy.