Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine Services in Purchase, NY

School physicals ensure your child is healthy enough to attend school and engage in related activities. The goals of the physical are to evaluate the physical and mental health of adolescents and young adults, and identify potential health issues, even if your child is not showing symptoms.

In addition to giving you the peace of mind that your child is healthy and thriving, school physicals are often a requirement of the registration process for high school, college, organized sports, and camp.

Your BridgeSpan Medicine physician takes time to review your child’s existing health and their personal and family medical history. They also discuss any new symptoms your child is experiencing and answer questions you may have about your child’s health and development.

Your child’s provider performs a physical exam and evaluates important details, including:

• Height
• Weight
• Reflexes
• Heart rate
• Lung function
• Blood pressure
• Hearing and vision

If your child has existing health issues, like diabetes or asthma, your physician may request additional diagnostic testing like blood work or lung function tests.

Your provider can also discuss important issues with your child at an age-appropriate level concerning sexual health, alcohol and drug use, and healthy eating.

If your child is registering to participate in sports, the BridgeSpan Medicine team can provide resources to help improve their athletic performance and reduce their risk of injuries.

The BridgeSpan Medicine team offers a variety of immunizations for adolescents and young adults. If your child did not receive immunizations during their routine examination, your provider can administer them during the school physical to protect against contagious diseases like:

• Hepatitis
• Tetanus
• Diphtheria
• Human papillomavirus (HPV)
• Whooping cough
• Meningitis

Our team can also provide you with necessary documentation regarding your child’s immunizations if you need them for school or camp registration.

If you have any concerns about immunization safety, you can discuss them with the BridgeSpan Medicine team to ensure you are making the most informed decision about your child’s health.

At BridgeSpan Medicine, a sick visit is any medical care your child receives when they feel ill. Most sick visits are related to a sudden, or acute, illness.

Our adolescent medicine physicians are also experienced in chronic illnesses and can treat your child for any illness related to systemic disease, congenital conditions, or other chronic conditions.

When should I schedule a sick visit?

If your child is feeling ill or hasn’t been acting normal, a sick visit to BridgeSpan Medicine is a good idea. Some of the many reasons for sick visits include:

• Fever
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Congestion
• Ear pain
• Muffled hearing
• Rash
• Pain when urinating
• Blood in urine

These symptoms can occur as a result of many conditions, but the common cold, flu, and urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common reasons for sick visits.

If your child has been dealing with symptoms for a day or two and they are worsening or staying the same, call BridgeSpan Medicine to arrange a sick visit, so they don’t have to suffer any longer.

How long does it take to get a sick appointment?

BridgeSpan Medicine offers priority appointments for sick patients. Our team doesn’t want your child to feel ill any longer than is absolutely necessary, so they make every effort to work you into the schedule as soon as possible.

How do you prevent the spread of illness during sick visits?

BridgeSpan Medicine is firmly committed to the safety of all patients and team members. To ensure maximum safety, the team conducts sick visits in a different on-site suite than where well visits, like physicals, are conducted.

Team members wear protective surgical masks while conducting sick exams and closely follow strict sterilization protocols throughout the office. Both you and your child get a surgical mask to wear when you arrive for the appointment.

The medical team is focused on your child’s health and safety. To make the sick visit a smooth and easy process, they let you know about any special preparation requirements when you make the appointment.

Immunizations are an essential part of preventive health, protecting you and your family from dangerous diseases. The team at BridgeSpan Medicine offers a comprehensive range of immunizations for adolescents and young adults.

Immunization is a treatment to protect you from an infectious disease. Immunizations, also known as vaccines, are usually delivered as an injection. They include a diluted amount of a virus to stimulate your immune system.

Immunizations are safe and carefully tested before being released for public use. In addition to protecting you from disease, vaccines also slow or prevent the spread of illness through communities, which helps protect those who genuinely cannot receive vaccines.

How do vaccines work?

The small amount the virus included in a vaccine imitates infection and triggers your immune system. Your immune system responds to the perceived threat by producing the antibodies necessary to fight off the virus or disease.

Those antibodies stay in your system, so if you come into contact with those germs in the future, your body is prepared to protect itself.

Most vaccines are provided during childhood to provide lifelong protection, although you may need additional doses of certain vaccines later in life to ensure you maintain the same levels of protection.

The flu vaccine is one notable exception. The flu virus changes rapidly, and each flu season, a different virus sweeps the country. That is why you should have an annual flu shot.

What immunizations do I need?

During childhood, you should receive the following vaccines:

• Tdap
• Meningococcal (Menactra)
• Meningococcal B (Trumenba)
• HPV
• Influenza

As a teen, in addition to the annual flu shot, you may need booster shots for pertussis, tetanus, and diphtheria. It is highly recommended that you also get a meningococcal B vaccine (also called TRUMENBA®) prior to attending college.

How do I know if I need an immunization?

In addition to keeping records of your health, with your permission, your doctor can request copies of the records maintained by previous health care providers. BridgeSpan Medicine offers customized advice on the immunizations that you need to protect your health.

Call or make an appointment online today to talk to the team at BridgeSpan Medicine about your immunization needs.

*The staff at BridgeSpan Medicine believe in both the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in preventing serious illness and saving lives. As pediatricians, their priority is the health and well-being of all children. They practice preventive medicine from birth to give patients the advantages that will lead to a long and healthy life. The administration of vaccines is an essential aspect of their philosophy and approach to pediatric care. All available research shows that the safest and most effective way to vaccinate children is according to the schedule set by the CDC and AAP. Straying from this schedule goes against proven scientific research and puts patients who do follow the schedule at risk. In an effort to protect patients to the best of their ability, in a world where these infectious diseases are unfortunately still in existence, the team will not accept patients who choose not to immunize.

BridgeSpan Medicine provides preventive health services for adolescents and young adults. Our experienced pediatricians recommend comprehensive routine examinations annually to stay on top of your child’s physical and mental health care needs. In addition to physical exams and preventive screenings, our skilled physicians can address sexuality, peer pressure, and other development concerns related to adolescents.

Routine examinations are a part of a preventive health care plan and are important for adolescents for two primary reasons.

These visits ensure that kids and young adults are healthy and functioning optimally. They also help the BridgeSpan Medicine team identify potential health issues in the earliest stages — when treatment is typically most effective.

The BridgeSpan Medicine team recommends that adolescents undergo a routine exam once a year if they are otherwise healthy. Your child needs this type of exam even when they aren’t sick or experiencing any symptoms.

During a routine exam, a BridgeSpan Medicine physician takes time to review your child’s personal and family health history. They discuss any issues your child has experienced since their last visit and perform a physical exam.

As part of the exam, your provider evaluates important aspects of your child’s health, including their:

• Height
• Weight
• Skin health
• Blood pressure
• Body temperature
• Vision and hearing

Depending on your child’s existing health and family history, they may need diagnostic screenings like blood work to check for diabetes and other underlying health conditions.

A routine exam is also an opportunity for your child to receive all necessary immunizations that protect against contagious diseases, like measles, mumps, and the seasonal flu.

Your BridgeSpan Medicine provider uses your child’s evaluation to review their physical and mental health. In the event they identify potential health issues, your physician can recommend additional testing and treatment services right away.

In addition to proactively caring for your child’s health, the team works with your child to address a variety of issues that have an impact on adolescents, including:

• Peer pressure
• Sports injuries
• Nutrition
• Sexuality
• Birth control
• Irregular periods
• Sexually transmitted disease (STDs)

The BridgeSpan Medicine team works to build trust and open communication that carries over into your child’s adult life. The physicians can also provide comprehensive resources that help your child live a healthy, happy life.

To prevent damage to your child’s ear canal or eardrum, you should leave earwax removal to the experts at BridgeSpan Medicine. At our adolescent medicine office in Purchase, New York, our experienced physicians offer in-office evaluations of ear pain that results from earwax buildup. The team offers several in-office earwax removal techniques to safely clean your child’s ears without damaging nearby structures.

Earwax is part of your body’s natural defense system. The wax helps to clean your ear canal by trapping dirt and preventing bacteria growth.

When earwax builds up in your child’s ear, it can become hard and difficult to remove naturally. Your child may also develop an earwax blockage if you use home methods, such as cotton swabs, to remove earwax. Cotton swabs can actually push wax farther into the ear canal.

Some people use other materials, including paper clips, to clean out their ears. These materials can cause serious damage to the inner ear structures and potentially harm your child’s eardrum.

If too much wax builds up in the ear, it can cause a variety of symptoms, including:

• Earaches
• Dizziness
• Decreased hearing
• Ringing in the ear

The team at BridgeSpan Medicine can evaluate these symptoms to confirm they relate to earwax buildup in your child’s ears and not an infection or other underlying condition.

How is an earwax blockage diagnosed?

If your child has difficulty hearing or pain in their ear, your BridgeSpan Medicine physician can examine the inside of their ear with a special magnifying scope.

During the exam, your provider checks for excessive earwax, damage in the ear canal, and infection. If your child’s symptoms are the result of an earwax blockage, they can safely remove the wax during an in-office procedure.

The team at BridgeSpan Medicine uses a special instrument known as a curet that can remove excess wax and clear the ear canal.

Your child’s provider may also use a bulb syringe to flush out the excess wax with warm water. During this procedure, they squirt warm water directly into the ear to soften the wax and remove it from the ear canal without harming the nearby tissue.

To prevent a recurrence of earwax buildup, your physician may recommend over-the-counter drops that soften the wax, so it falls out naturally.