When to have your deviated septum fixed
When should you have a deviated septum repaired?
Before we answer that, we need to discuss two other questions. What is the septum, and what does it do?
The septum is a wall within the nose, separating the left and right sides.
It helps to streamline nasal breathing by directing airflow.
Because breathing through the nose is a game of millimeters, a small obstruction for a crooked nose can result in airway resistance.
So there are a few reasons to have your septum fixed.
- If nasal sprays, saline rinses or allergy medications aren’t helping you breathe through your nose.
- If you can’t tolerate nasal sprays or have side effects like nose bleeds from nasal sprays.
- If you don’t want to use nasal sprays for the rest of your life, then having the septum fixed is a great alternative. It’s only a week of downtime, and just a few weeks of healing time.
If you are considering having cosmetic surgery for your nose, having your septum fixed at the same time is a good idea.
Doing both procedures at once allows the septal cartilage to be used for grafting instead of discarding the crooked parts, only requires one dose of anesthesia once, and can help defer some of the costs by getting insurance involved.
Even more importantly, anytime you make the nose smaller, or alter the shape of the nose, the functional components of the nose have to be in shape. Otherwise, postoperatively, breathing will be worse. So we always fix the septum during rhinoplasty so that the nose works just as good as it looks.
If you have any other questions, email us at info@drundavia.com, or call at 609-403-8840.