I’ve known Dr. Kingsley N. Chin for years through our shared membership in the Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Dental Study group (CIDS), where he is known as “the sinus and allergy guy.” Dr. Chin has been practicing in Atlanta at Piedmont ENT & Related Allergy for over 25 years and has developed a comprehensive approach to treating patients with sinus and allergy symptoms. He trained at University of Pennsylvania for ENT and received his medical degree at University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Chin believes that finding the source of recurring sinus infections is more important than repeatedly treating patients’ symptoms with antibiotics, which can lead to serious bacterial resistance. He takes a wholistic approach to treatment and evaluates a patient’s work and home environments (environmental allergies to pollens, dust, mold, pet dander, and food sensitivities can cause inflammation, block sinuses, and lead to infections). He also takes a thorough patient history because sinus infections can be caused by poor immune systems (which can be checked by allergy and blood tests), congenital narrowness of the sinus openings, scar tissue from recurring sinus infections, and patients who have had root canals may have sinus infections without feeling any tooth pain. Of course, he also performs thorough physical examinations using diagnostic endoscopies of the inside of the nose and throat to look for problems such as nasal polyps and a deviated septum.
Dr. Chin takes a conservative, minimalistic approach to treating patients. If antibiotics are necessary, he may prescribe topical antibiotics as a sinus irrigation to effectively treat resistant bacteria. If surgery is required, he determines if it can be done in the office through minimally invasive balloon sinuplasty and mild oral sedatives rather than in the operating room with general anesthesia. These procedures allow patients to go back to work or school much sooner than conventional sinus surgeries. A patient with significant allergies with recurring exacerbation of sinus infections may be treated with weekly in-office or in-home allergy shots or with more convenient daily sublingual allergy drops.
Put simply, Dr. Chin takes a comprehensive but conservative approach to treating patients, and when my son had ear issues and I had allergy problems, we went to Dr. Chin.
