I suffer from extreme sinusitis and after failed shots and drops I'm considering balloon sinuplasty. Has anyone had this procedure and who is a good ENT doctor? I've been to Texas ent before, but I'm not that impressed.

I was gonna say Texas ENT. Andrew de Jong was my doc. Fixed multiple severely broken noses that required surgery. Also did work on chronic ear infections/tubes and removing tonsils/adenoids/lymph nodes. Granted this was over a decade ago

I do that procedure quite a bit, both in-office and in the O.R. It is good for someone with limited sinus disease with favorable anatomy (would depend on what the CT scan looked like), no polyps, septum not severely deviated, etc. The ideal candidate is someone with recurrent acute sinusitis causing headache and pressure. The sinuses make 1/2 to 1 LITER of mucous a day, all of that stuff has to travel through narrow channels to get to the back of your nose, then down your throat, get swallowed, and then reabsorbed from the GI tract. Allergies and colds make the outflow pathways narrower than they otherwise would be, so doing a balloon dilation gives you more "margin for error" when inflammation starts. Reducing the frequency and severity of sinus pressure would be the target. It will NOT improve your nasal airflow in and of itself. It will not, in all likelihood, decrease drainage. That's more likely a consequence of your allergies. I don't know any of the guys in BCS, having been out of the state for 20 years, but would you be willing to travel outside of your area to see someone? Fighting Texas Aggie Howard Garb is in Tyler, TX and will shoot straight with you. Andrew Lehr is in Athens and is very awesome, and if you are willing to travel to Dallas, Greg Rohn and Brad Marple are as good as they get. Marple was a critic of balloon sinuplasty for a long time, so he might be the least likely of them to recommend the procedure. Of course, if you get another opinion, make sure you bring a copy of your CT with you because the report is of little help in determining the appropriateness for a particular patient. I would let any of those guys operate on me. And I'm picky Good luck.

Thx kool. I've learned to accept allergies since I don't want to move to Arizona. My problem is sinus pressure and way too many sinus infections. When it's the worst and I blow my nose or sneeze, the pressure will get trapped in my sinuses and not release. I'm talkng head in a vice pressure that makes drilling a hole in my cheek sound like a reasonable solution. My teeth go numb and it hurts so bad I can't open my eyes. After some time it will release and whistle like a tea pot. It's absolute hell.

That's the right symptom just gotta make sure your CT confirms. Until then, nasal steroids and azelastine all the time, then Afrin and Sudafed if and when it gets bad (limited basis).

I hate taking meds, so going Under the knife is always preferable. What should I expect to pay for balloon sinuplasty? I'm self pay since insurance sucks. Pm if you don't mind.

Ugh. Not quite sure on a cash price. In-office, I presume?? Balloon device and disposables are gonna cost about $1,600. So go up from there. I don't have PM privileges. ?LOLpoor?

The price is going to depend on how many sinuses you're going to have dilated anywhere from 1 to 6. Make sure that you negotiate a global price ahead of time. It's a somewhat complicated situation, but sinus surgery has a zero day global. That means that the postop care is not included in the price of the surgery, as it is for some other procedures. You don't want to be caught with a surprise after your postop visits.