As of a few years ago, the treatment offered to some patients with an obstructive salivary gland stone such as the one pictured would have been to remove the gland in its entirety via an external incision in the neck. An operation that requires up to 2 weeks of post-operative recovery. Today at UCI Medical Center, Dr. Sepehr Oliaei offers a new method for endoscopic or endoscopically assisted removal of such stones with minimal downtime and no external incisions.

Sialendoscopy is a modern technique that uses ultrathin channeled endoscopes to visualize the interior of parotid and submandibular salivary gland ducts. Via this technique, various disorders affecting salivary ducts can be diagnosed and treated in minimally invasive fashion.