Deviated Septum

What causes a deviated septum

A deviated septum is thought to form as the baby passes through the birth canal, or later, after an injury to the nose.

Who should be examined

You may have a deviated septum if you have a blocked nose, difficulty breathing through the nose, snoring, sleeping with your mouth open, a history of frequent sinusitis, headache, a reduced sense of smell or broken sleep. A full ear, nose and throat examination is needed.

How the diagnosis is made

Patients with these complaints are examined for a deviated septum. An endoscopic examination inside the nose makes the diagnosis easy and accurate, and it also shows the other conditions that block the nose.

How it is treated, and do we use packing

A deviated septum is corrected by surgery. The crooked bone and cartilage in the middle of the nose are straightened. The operation is called septoplasty.

We do the operation under general anaesthesia. Under normal conditions it takes 45 minutes. We put in no packing. We finish the operation with dissolving stitches. The long strips of gauze packed into the nose in earlier years are no longer used.

Does the bone grow crooked again

After an operation done properly, the crooked bone and cartilage do not grow back. Septoplasty succeeds in about 85 per cent of cases.

After the operation

Because we use no packing, the dreaded removal of packing is gone as well. The stitches dissolve, so none have to be taken out, and dressings and care after the operation have become very easy.

A little blood-stained discharge in the first two days and a blocked nose during the first week are expected. The operation needs no hospital stay, and patients return to work within a few days.

What happens if it is left untreated

Patients with a deviated septum who have a blocked nose, snoring, mouth breathing and frequent attacks of pharyngitis should be treated with septoplasty.

Left untreated, they get poor quality sleep, low oxygen levels, snoring, pauses in breathing during sleep, sleep disorders, a dry throat, long-standing pharyngitis and nosebleeds.

This condition causes serious problems, and it is not well understood by the public, who confuse it with aesthetic surgery. People who breathe through the nose without difficulty can also dislike the shape of their nose and have aesthetic surgery. Finally, in patients who have both a crooked septum and a shape they dislike, we correct the inside of the nose and reshape the outside in one operation.