3 Nasal Conditions Rhinoplasty Can Help Treat

3 Nasal Conditions Rhinoplasty Can Help Treat

Rhinoplasty Surgery

Each year, thousands of people undergo nasal surgery. They may opt for surgery for any number of reasons, including aesthetics, a drooping and aging nose, correcting an injury or birth deformity, or breathing problems.

Often, these reasons work together to justify consulting with a nasal function and cosmetic surgery specialist. This ensures that healthy breathing is treated just as important as aesthetics.


What You Need To Know About Nasal Surgery

Cosmetic surgery for the nose is called rhinoplasty. It’s related to the nose’s shape and how it aligns with other facial features. As the nose is more prominent than these other facial features, the slightest change is capable of improving appearance.

Rhinoplasty is a personalized surgery involving consultation with an ENT nose surgeon for a breathing assessment and to talk about the appearance that the patient is aiming to achieve. There will also be a discussion about risk factors, and where the patient will undergo the surgery, which will be in an outpatient surgical center, a certified office operating room, or a hospital. When it comes to young patients, unless it’s to correct an injury or deformity, or for a severe breathing impairment, that should wait until they’re 15- or 16-years-old once their facial bones have fully developed.

Here are three reasons why an adult might consider rhinoplasty.


A Chronic Stuffy Nose

Millions of people experience recurring nasal obstruction or stiffness. The nasal obstruction could be an issue inside the nose, or it could be swelling brought on by chronic sinus inflammation, allergies, or other conditions.

A blockage can be a result of a deviated septum, which can be bent or crooked due to an injury or abnormal growth. This can either fully or partially close at least one of the nasal passages. Around 80% of people have septal deviation, to one degree or another. However, should it cause severe breathing or nasal obstruction, a surgical procedure called septorhinoplasty can correct it? Structural or cosmetic changes can be simultaneously performed in a combination procedure known as septorhinoplasty.

Enlargement of the turbinates, which are structures in the nasal passages, can also cause nasal obstruction or stiffness. These turbinates sometimes need treatment in order to reduce their size and to open the nasal passages. Treatments include such surgical producers as partial removal of turbinate reduction. Allergies can be another cause of nasal obstruction and turbinate enlargement. In this case, you would be wise to consider allergy testing with treatment.

Nasal valve collapse or narrow nostrils can see the nose’s openings obstruct airflow. The cartilages that help support the nostrils may be pinched or collapse with breathing in, resulting in nasal obstruction. Adhesive nasal strips, like those athletes, wear in order to improve their breathing, could help. If nasal splints or nasal strips improve breathing through the nose, a nasal valve or nasal tip rhinoplasty or surgery may improve airflow.


Aging Nose

It isn’t at all uncommon for nasal obstruction to be caused by aging. This happens when age and droop have darkened the nose’s cartilage and tip as a result of gravity, which causes the nostrils to collapse, thus obstructing airflow. Limited and noisy breathing, or mouth-breathing, is common.

Lift your nose’s tip to assess whether you find breathing easier or not. If you do, they could consider surgery to lift or adjust the tip or to support the cartilages on the sides of your nose, as this may help. Discuss with an otolaryngologist or facial plastic surgeon with regards to rhinoplasty or nasal tip surgery. This can involve reshaping and trimming or supporting the nasal and septal cartilage. Soft packing or splints could be placed either over the nose or inside the nostrils to ensure the septum or nasal tip is held in place. Patients typically experience swelling for up to two weeks. Once the packaging has been removed, however, most experience vastly improved breathing.


A Broken Nose

Swelling and bruising of the soft tissue and skin can cause difficulty when it comes to assessing whether the nose has sufficiently moved the nasal bones to affect breathing or the nose’s appearance. With a nasal fracture with a mild displacement, waiting 48-82 hours for an appointment with a doctor may help him or her to assess the injury as the swelling subsidies. You should apply ice in the meantime.

For severely displaced bones, a surgeon may try to restore the nasal bones to a straighter position while the patient is under general or local anesthesia, known as a nasal fracture reduction. This is typically achieved within 10 days after the injury, and before the bones have correctly healed.

A nasal splint, placed internally and/or externally, could remain in place for approximately one week afterwards in order to assist the cartilage and bone to heal in the right position.