ENT specialist

What the profession can do

• ✅Examine the ear, nose, and throat using otoscope, nasofibroscope, and endoscopy to identify infections, inflammation, or masses
• ✅Prescribe and interpret audiometry tests and tympanometry to assess hearing function
• ✅Treat acute infections (otitis media, pharyngitis, sinusitis) with antibiotics, decongestants, or surgical drainage when indicated
• ✅Perform surgical procedures including myringotomy, adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy, septorhinoplasty, endoscopic sinus surgery, and polypectomy
• ✅Evaluate and manage voice disorders and swallowing difficulties through referral to speech pathology and voice rehabilitation
• ✅Direct patients to hearing aids, cochlear implants, or bone-anchored hearing aids for severe or profound deafness

What it cannot treat

• ❌ENT specialists do not treat systemic immune disorders or generalized diseases—even if they affect ENT structures. Systemic illnesses should be managed by the primary care physician or internist
• ❌Severe sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically reversed; only hearing aids, implants, or assistive devices can help, with variable success
• ❌Voice disorders arising purely from neurological or psychiatric causes require multidisciplinary care including speech-language pathology. The ENT first rules out organic pathology
• ❌ENT surgery carries inherent risks (bleeding, infection, nerve injury) that cannot be eliminated, particularly for facial nerve and skull base surgery
• ❌Severe allergic diseases are primarily managed by allergists; ENT treats nasal and sinus consequences but not systemic allergic disease
• ❌Head and neck cancer requires multidisciplinary oncologic care. The ENT role is initial diagnosis and possible surgical resection, not primary cancer treatment