Sialendoscopy

Sialendoscopy is a minimally invasive technique of using miniature endoscopes to visualise the ducts of salivary glands, for diagnosis and treatment of any obstruction which might be affecting function of the glands.

Saliva is produced in the body within these glands and then transported to the mouth via ducts. The human body has three pairs of major salivary glands, a pair each in the cheeks, below the tongue and in the neck, as well as several hundred minor salivary glands in the oral cavity.

Disorders of these glands are a common enough occurrence, including repeated infections to lumps present within the salivary glands. Obstruction of these ducts can lead to swelling of the glands, especially at meal times. Common causes of obstruction are salivary stones (sialolith or calculi), mucous plugs (thickened saliva) and occasionally due to narrowing of the duct (stricture/stenosis).