Also, do doctors remove tonsils and adenoids in the office anymore?
Answer There are a number of valid reasons to remove a child’s tonsils and/or adenoids and the presence of sleep apnea is certainly one of them. Sleep apnea is basically where a person stops breathing during sleep. Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain essentially “forgets” to breathe. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is the type that is helped by removing the tonsils and adenoids (called a tonsiloadenoidectomy), occurs when the airway is blocked by large tonsils/adenoids. Removing them tends to help considerably with OSA. While having a tonsiloadenoidectomy will likely help with your daughter’s sleep apnea, it is not something that absolutely MUST be done so, in that sense, it is an elective procedure. Keep in mind, however, that even though it could be considered an elective procedure, that does not necessarily mean that it is not medically beneficial. “Elective” in this sense is very different from a procedure such as a face-lift or a tummy tuck, which would also be consider
