Are you experiencing repetitive sinus infection or habitual snoring while sleeping? If these occurrences happen often, and they extremely bother your breathing mechanism and health condition, then you may opt to have your nose checked.
The cases above are just some of the symptoms of an abnormal condition of the nasal septum. This is called nasal septum deviation or deviated septum. This is a disorder of the nose, particularly the nasal septum. The nasal septum is the cartilage and bone in the nose, usually the thin line in between, that divides that nasal cavity, separating them into two nostrils. Normally, the nasal septum lies at the center of the nose, and the nasal passages are usually symmetrical.
Usually, one of the causes of nasal septum deviation or deviated septum is trauma—when someone punches the face and hits the nose. This disorder can also be congenital. This occurs when there is a compression of a baby’s nose during childbirth. Seemingly, generic connective tissue disorders, which are Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, can also be associated with the deviated septum disorder.
Aside from the symptoms mentioned above, the other symptoms which people may experience if they have the deviated septum disorder are headache, nosebleeding, difficulty in breathing, and sleeping disorders. The most common sleeping disorder associated with deviated septum is the sleep apnea, which is a serious illness of breathing.
In rare cases, the deviated septum can be undetected. It is only the owner of the nose who can tell if there is really something wrong within his or her nose. Most often than not, the nose becomes substantially shifted to either side, either right or left. Of course, it is important that our noses are centrally aligned, because it is one category that people observe to define beauty. So, if you experience the symptoms, it is recommended to seek a physician’s diagnosis.
Don’t worry, because this problem has an effective solution. This disorder is curable. In fact, there are non-surgical options to get rid of this condition, but these procedures only guarantees relief in breathing. In cases where the nose alignment gets affected, you may opt to undergo deviated septum surgery, also known as septoplasty.
The septolasty is usually done by a licensed ENT (ear, nose, tongue) specialist. The doctor will do surgery to correct or reposition the nasal septum to be aligned to the nasal cavity. This procedure is the updated cure for the condition. Before, doctors do the submucous resection, where in the bone or cartilage that has been deviated will be removed. An endoscope examination of the nasal cavity will be checked first before the actual surgery.
Septoplasty is a safe procedure and you’ll be able to rest on the hospital’s back stretchers as you recover. Local or general anesthesia can be used. Usually, the recovery is quick, which can only take one hour. But for the more serious case, recovery may take from two days to four weeks.