The short version
If you come to me and you do not need an operation, I will tell you that. You will have paid for a consultation, not a surgery.
I did my MBBS at Government Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada, finishing in 2010. My MS in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology was at King George Hospital, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, under NTR University of Health Sciences, completed in 2017. I stayed on for senior residency at the Government ENT Hospital, Andhra Medical College, from 2017 to 2018.
That last year matters more than it looks on a certificate. A government ENT hospital in a city the size of Visakhapatnam sees every kind of case, and many of each. The neglected ear that has been discharging for a decade. The child brought in after three years of mouth-breathing. Something stuck in an ear, nose or throat at midnight. The breathing problem that cannot wait. You learn to operate on the ear that does not read like the textbook, because most ears do not.
I am registered with the Telangana State Medical Council, registration number 69638.
How I decide whether you need surgery
Four steps, in this order, and I do not skip one to get to the next.
Examination first, with a scope. Most ENT problems are settled by looking properly. A thin camera (nasal endoscope) for the nose. A microscope or an ear camera (otoendoscope) for the ear. A flexible scope for the voice box. A torch and a head mirror miss things.
Then a test that measures it. A hearing test (audiogram). A CT scan for the sinuses. A sleep study for snoring. A scan and a needle test for a thyroid swelling. I want a number or an image, not an impression, before I talk about operating.
Then treatment without surgery, where there is one. A nose allergy is treated properly before anyone talks about operating on the shelves inside the nose (turbinates). A first bout of sinusitis is not a reason for sinus surgery. Reflux treatment and voice rest come before any operation on the voice box. Some problems cannot be treated with medicine: a hole in the eardrum will not close with drops. Then I will say so at the first visit, not sell you three months of medicine.
Then surgery, explained in full. What I plan to do, what can go wrong, what happens if you do nothing, and what the other options are. All in the language you prefer, and in writing if you want it in writing.
