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Comment by sureaboutthis | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of when tonsils were removed at the first sign of trouble.

When I was in my early 20s, in the 1970s, I went to my doctor about a bad sore throat. He advised me to see an ENT who barely bothered to look down my throat for more than a second and automatically declared I needed mine removed. That bothered me but I very much respected my personal doctor who said he respected this ENT. When I mention this to doctors nowadays, most nod their heads that, today, it's not likely mine would have been removed.

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Growing up, I felt like getting tonsils removed was as common as changing teeth, it must've happened to a third or so of my classmates at the time.

It seemed harmless enough from a distance, they pull out some stuff from your throat and you get ice cream.

I had mine out as an adult and it was a pretty painful week of recovery.

Yes but Allison visited me in the hospital! TIL: Alisson liked me!!

They tell you you can have all the ice cream you want to eat, but neglect to mention that you'll be in too much pain and too nauseous to actually want to eat any. :P

Believe me, all the ice cream in the world isn't worth that experience. You're not missing anything.

Another example of this is how frequently ENTs will combine septoplasty to fix a deviated septum with turbinectomy. This has resulted in a lot of people suffering from Empty Nose Syndrome which is so distressing that some kill themselves over it [1]. My wife recently consulted with an ENT, and he said that he rarely does turbinectomies, since enlarged turbinates are often just a result of a deviated septum and will revert to a normal size months or years after septoplasty alone. He said with some dismay that lots of other ENTs haven’t changed their approach.

[1] https://www.buzzfeed.com/joeloliphint/is-empty-nose-syndrome...

That's horrifying. At least wikipedia says it can be fixed in many cases by a surgery that replaces the missing turbinate parts with artificial structures that serve the same function.

It depends on lots of factors. Under age of six they have decent chance to grow it out, but doc should check for other conditions like missing some breathing while asleep etc. Also depends on risk avoidance of your doc in general.

Are there hypotheses now for the purpose of the tonsils the way they've developed some for the purpose of the appendix?

From the Wiki page on tonsils, it seems they have an immunological function.

I had my tonsils removed when I was 4. They were so infected, that they basically fell apart shortly after removal.

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