Chronic Nasal Congestion causes serious health problems and reduces the quality of life. Nasal congestion may also be the cause of our headache or waking up tired in the mornings. How aware are we of this situation? How much should we care about nasal congestion? Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Specialist Op.Dr. Bahadır Baykal gave information on the subject.
The amount of air passing through the nose during the day is approximately 10.000 liters. Almost everyone, children or adults, may experience nasal congestion from time to time. Most of the time, nasal congestion is not taken seriously and workarounds are tried to be solved. However, while chronic nasal congestion causes problems such as insomnia and fatigue that reduce the quality of life, it can lead to much more serious problems such as heart enlargement in the long term.
Diseases such as colds or sinusitis can cause temporary nasal congestion, but this is not a problem. Chronic nasal obstruction caused by the curvature of the inner part of the nose, ie deviation or enlargement of the nasal concha, causes oxygen deficiency in the long term and adversely affects the body. When there is not enough fresh air to our lungs, the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange is affected, our blood carries deficient oxygen to the tissues and tissue damage develops over time. A person who cannot sleep with a quality sleep also develops fatigue and difficulty in concentration, following high blood pressure, the heart starts rhythm disturbance and after a while the heart grows.
One of the most important symptoms in patients with chronic nasal congestion is snoring, and when the person wakes up in the morning, a dry feeling occurs in the mouth.
The curvature of the inner part of the nose (deviation) is the curvature of the middle part of the nose that usually develops after trauma. During pregnancy, even in the mother's womb, the baby may be exposed to nasal trauma during the rotational movements, it plays a role in the development of deviation in the blows during birth and childhood. Not every deviation causes nasal congestion. Swelling of the structures for the nose, which we call concha known as the nasal meat in the society, is also one of the very common causes of chronic nasal obstruction. It causes swelling of the nasal concha in women during the menstrual periods and hormonal changes during pregnancy.
Among the causes of chronic nasal congestion, constant allergies have an important place. Structures such as polyps that develop especially in patients with allergic background can obstruct the nose completely. Nasal congestion can also occur as a result of a reaction to any substance that irritates the nose. The most common is tobacco smoke. Even if some patients have had a successful nose surgery, they cannot fully relax as long as they continue to smoke. One of the unusual causes is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In treatment, stomach acid should be prevented from escaping up to the nasal passages.
If the cause of nasal obstruction is deviation, the only solution is surgery. If the bone and cartilage curvature is corrected, the breathing problem improves. We can now perform nasal surgeries quite comfortably and conveniently. I guess we stopped rhinoplasty from being a feared operation
In frequently recurring sinusitis attacks, firstly, we dry the inflammation with medication and then we deal with anatomical problems such as deviation and concha bullosa by surgery.
Be the first to comment