Directory of Diseases

Telogen effluvium is a scalp disorder characterized by the thinning or shedding of hair resulting from the early entry of hair in the telogen phase, the latest stage in the life cycle of the hair. A simpler way to think about it is the hair is "aging too rapidly" through its life cycle resulting in hair falling out or thinning prematurely. In many patients, this can be caused by emotional or physiological stress. Other causes can include eating disorders, childbirth, chronic illness, fever, major surgery, anemia, severe emotional disorders, crash diets, hypothyroidism, and drugs. Typically the hair loss occurs 2-3 weeks after the trigger or cause and will resolve when the trigger is removed.

Any movable joint in the body can be sprained during an injury. The same is true of your jaw joint. This can occur when the jaw is moved too much during a forceful impact to the face. Although most of these sprains heal well on their own, your recovery needs to be supervised by a health professional. When you sprain your jaw you should be able to open your mouth almost all the way open and should be able bite down without much difficulty. There should also be no deformity or swelling of your jaw.

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is the joint of the jaw that is used to open the mouth and connects to the skull. Because it is a joint it can develop arthritis or degeneration which can lead to pain. There are many causes for this: grinding of teeth, trauma, inflammatory diseases, and malocclusion of the teeth, or sometimes no direct cause is discovered. The disease is more common in women and is usually seen in the 20-40 age range.

A Testicular Mass can have many causes. These causes may be due to an accumulation of fluids, the growth of abnormal tissue, or normal contents of the scrotum that have become swollen, inflamed or hardened.

Testicular Torsion is a twisting of the testicles in the scrotum. The testicles are suspended from the spermatic cords, and these cords supply the nerves and blood vessels to the testicles. Normally the testicles are attached to the sides of the scrotum preventing twisting. At times these attachments are not present allowing the testicle to twist in the scrotum causing the vessels in the spermatic cord to become blocked. If the twisting is not relieved the testicle can die. It is most common in adolescents (12 to 20 years), but can affect all ages.