Doctors across the United States come in many different specialties. Some of them are general practitioners who may have many private patients whom they see regularly, while other specialize in certain types of patients or ailments that may present in a patient. Pediatricians, for example, will care for babies and children under the age of 18, and ENT specialists (ear nose throat) will specialize in afflictions of the nose, throat, and ears, as the name suggests. ENT doctors may also help a patient with other problems in their head or neck as well, such as with their eyes or neck muscles, making them highly flexible. Allergy doctors will diagnose and offer treatment for many different allergies that may affect American adults and children today, and allergies are common among chronic illnesses today. Many medical students may consider ENT and allergy careers, and these ENT and allergy careers may prove highly lucrative in the near future. If someone is considering ENT and allergy careers, what might they expect to treat among their patients? And what about other specialists?
Pursuing ENT and Allergy Careers
These ENT and allergy doctors have plenty of patients to work with, seeing as allergies and ear, nose, and throat issues are quite common in the United States today. In fact, the medical industry keeps track of many different statistics for a variety of health problems, and this includes allergies of many sorts. It has been found that around 50 million Americans have experienced various types of allergies every single year, and allergies now rank 6th among all chronic illnesses in the United States. Ragweed allergies are fairly common among all these allergies, affecting around 10-20% of all Americans every year. Poison ivy is another common allergy, affecting as many as 85% of all Americans. Contact with the poison ivy plant causes a certain oil to set off itchy rashes on a person’s skin. Even if such a plant dies, its oil remains, and a person may get a rash if they get in contact with it. Doctors can help with all of these and more.
Allergies affect Americans young and old, but children and babies are especially vulnerable to them, so pediatric ENT and allergy careers allow doctors to treat these young patients. Airborne particles known as VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, often are emitted from certain paints or primers or from dirty carpets in a house, and these may set off allergic reactions or even cause allergies to form in a person exposed to these VOCs. For this reason, Americans are urged to regularly vacuum and deep-clean their carpets to prevent so much dirt from soaking into them, and floor covers should be used when painting or when creating plaster dust during home repair. Sawing a hole in drywall, for example, may create dust and particles that may soak into an unprotected carpet. Meanwhile, parents are urged to use hypoallergenic paints on a baby crib and any and all furniture in the nursery, and even the crib’s fitted sheets may be hypoallergenic models to further prevent harm to the baby’s respiratory system.
When a child develops allergies, he or she may be brought in to a local pediatrician for c are, and that pediatrician may diagnose that particular allergy and recommend any necessary medication, or at least guide parents on how to avoid exposing their children to those allergens. Adult patients, meanwhile, may visit an ENT doctor if they have a problem with their throat, their eyes or ears, or their nasal cavity or anything similar. Such doctors may diagnose a wide variety of issues or refer their patients to specialists.
It may be noted that some doctors’ offices don’t have room for more patients, or a patient may not have transport to a doctor’s office. A substitute known as telemedicine has been devised, and this allows patients to look for doctors online and converse with them using live video chat services. This is a new field that has already proven popular and is seeing some growth. At any time of day or night, a patient may look for virtual online doctors in their area to consult, and use video chat to describe or show their symptoms and receive guidance on a diagnosis and treatment.
