What is deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery?

Deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery are two different procedures that can be performed in the same session, with the objective of improving the airflow inside your nose.

A deviated septum surgery is the process of reshaping the nasal septum (the tissue that separates both your nostrils). There are two available methods for this: one involves cutting the bone and cartilage to increase the space inside your nose (depending on the extent of the procedure, general anesthesia might be necessary); the other resorts to laser technology to heat the parts that need to be shaped (only local anesthesia is needed). Both will have the result of straightening your septum. You will leave the hospital on the very same day you came in.

Turbinate reduction surgery can be performed in tandem with the procedures described above or separately. There are two different methods: in the first one, a doctor will use a needle-like device to heat the parts that need to be reduced, effectively burning some of them, and radiotherapy which also contributes to the reduction of tissue (only requiring the administration of local anesthesia, and takes about 10 minutes); the second one is a surgical intervention where bone and tissue are cut, as the doctor increases the space in your airways. It can take up to one hour and a half. This last process is more invasive, usually requires general anesthesia, and is reserved for correcting more difficult circumstances.

How is deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery different from other procedures to fix a deviated septum?

In cases where the deviation of the septum isn't very serious but the patient still feels a lot of problematic symptoms, then turbinate size could be a problem. This surgery aims to improve the airflow inside your head, in the path between your nose and your throat, without altering the morphology of your nose.

This is the main difference between the two: in a deviated septum surgery the intervention is done to the septum (the nose) and in a turbinate reduction surgery it's the turbinates that get worked on.

How long is the recovery from deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery?

If the intervention was done resorting only to a combination of radiotherapy and cauterization (the "needle-like" device), the recovery process is short and relatively painless. However, if the surgical version is performed your nostrils will be filled with soft packing, and recovery could take from three to six months.

What are the best tips to prepare for and/or recover from deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery?

Before the actual surgery date, your doctor will require some exams, such as X-Ray and blood tests, to determine your general health and what is the shape and position of your turbinates.

If the intervention is minor, the combination of cauterization/radiotherapy will be used, along with local anesthesia. Special preparations are not necessary, you just need to show up at the hospital. Local anesthesia will be administered and the whole process should last up to 10 minutes. Since the process is not very invasive, no soft packing will be needed.

If major changes are necessary, then surgical intervention will need to be done, which might require general anesthesia. This kind of sedative requires you not to eat anything the night before. It will take up to one hour and a half to complete the surgery, and your nose will be filled with soft packing for a week to allow for your wounds to heal.

The recovery process and surgery times could be different if the turbinate surgery is being combined with a deviated septum surgery.

While you're recovering, you should:

What else should a patient know about deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery?

The side effects of a cauterization/radiotherapy intervention are almost nonexistent. In the case of surgery, however, there are some things you should know: since the process involves cutting tissue and bone, you could experience varying levels of pain, bleeding, swelling, irritation, dryness of the nasal cavities and even infection. Using saline irrigation and an antibiotic ointment will help you tackle these difficulties.

There's a chance that some of the tissues modified may grow back, which calls for an additional intervention in the future.

Regarding the costs of the whole procedure, the less invasive version costs $2000. The more invasive version can cost from $400 to $5000, depending on the complexity and special needs; if you combine the turbinate reduction surgery with the deviated septum one, you can expect to pay double. The values mentioned above are without medical insurance.

Wrapping Up

Whether you need a combination of both a deviated septum surgery and turbinate reduction or just the latter, we hope that this information has shed some light on the issue, and has given you a base for making a decision regarding your own condition (if you do suffer from it). The advances in medical science have provided many different ways to deal with these problems, and the interventions are becoming easier and less painful, as more discoveries are made and current processes are upgraded. Improving your wellbeing has never been this simple.

References:

​Turbinate Reduction: What to Expect

​Turbinate Reduction | Stanford Health Care

​Health Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercise​​​

Having a deviated septum, depending on the severity, can enable a number of adverse conditions in your body. Since the deviation usually occupies important space inside your nose where air should flow freely, you might experience difficulties in breathing through your nose.

When sleeping, this reduced space coupled with the effect of gravity over your body can tighten the airways, leading to the production of sounds as the air is funneled inside multiple channels.

This is a fancy way of saying that you'll start snoring!

There are a number of reasons why we snore. Some of them can be traced to having a deviated septum, but we'll outline them here as it can be attributed to something else as well:

If none or few of these conditions apply to you, then your deviated septum might be responsible for your snoring. Read on to understand how it happens.

Can a deviated septum cause snoring?

When we sleep, the area at the back of the throat relaxes, to the point of even closing off temporarily. When the air tries to break through, it will make the tissues vibrate, producing the snoring sound. Other places where this narrowing can happen apart from the throat are the mouth or your nose.

The air should enter your nose through your nostrils, pass through to the turbinates (where the air is heated and moisturized to help your lungs later), then go through the back of your throat for the rest of the journey. If your septum is crooked, then it could be contributing to this difficulty in airflow.

When the septum isn't straight, the air is already having trouble passing freely inside your nostrils, it is making tissue vibrate (sometimes audibly) which in turn increases the effort required to breathe through the nose. This can lead to your body deciding that breathing through the mouth is easier and that kind of breathing usually has a greater chance of causing snoring.

We've just described how a deviated septum can cause snoring on its own. However, please note that having this condition increases the effects of sinusitis, allergies, swollen tissue, and nasal blockage, all of which can lead to increasing the frequency and the severity of snoring.

Will fixing a deviated septum stop snoring?

Fixing a deviated septum through surgery is a sure way to increase the space in your airways and general airflow inside them. Because of this, it is very likely that this kind of procedure will make you stop snoring and increase your overall sleep quality (and that of the person that sleeps with you as well!).

What are some home remedies for snoring caused by a deviated septum?

There are some strategies you can adopt to increase airflow and reduce your snoring at night. First, if you're suffering from allergies, sinusitis, the flu or a cold, you'll need to take medication to tackle these symptoms, such as decongestants, antihistamines, and nasal or corticosteroid spray.

Then, think about how you lie in bed. Do you usually sleep on your back? If you do, this causes the collapse of soft tissue towards the back of your throat, further reducing the space the air has to move in and out freely. Lying on your sides or even on your stomach can be a great improvement.

To control the position of your body at night, you can, for example, sew a tennis ball to the back of a shirt and wear it as you sleep. This way, every time your body tries to lie on your back, it will feel the tennis ball, prompting it to go back to the side or prone position.

If you have a reclining bed, tuning it so you're not lying completely parallel to the ground is an option if you can't sleep in any other position than on your back.

What do I do if my snoring doesn't improve?

If the simple steps described above didn't improve your breathing and didn't make your snoring go away, then you should consider consulting a doctor and ask for a sleep study to be conducted. Some of these can be done at home, though the in-depth ones involve staying overnight at a sleep center to perform polysomnography.

You will be connected to many sensors and you'll be observed overnight, as your brain waves, heart rate, blood oxygen level, breathing rate, eye and leg movements, and sleep stages are being analyzed to see how your sleep state is affecting your body. The resulting report should allow your doctor to pin down the reasons for your snoring and poor sleep quality.

Depending on your situation, you might be prescribed:

We hope that the minor solutions we gave you earlier were enough to help you stop snoring. If not and you need to seek medical help, don't be afraid as the examinations and surgical procedures are not complex, and carrying them out will represent a great improvement in your sleep quality. Life can be very tiring: you should get the best sleep possible to enjoy it fully!

References and further reading:

Having a deviated septum is a condition that paves the way for multiple additional problems. Those problems are not limited to only your breathing and the feeling of stuffiness in your nose and nasal area; they can also affect how you sleep and how much (or little) rest you get from it.

When your septum is crooked, the airways don't have the optimal space to allow air to freely flow. As if this wasn't enough, the deviation can complicate your sinuses (leading to postnasal drip), stimulate the swelling and inflammation of the tissue inside the nose (especially when allergies strike), contribute to frequent headaches, nosebleeds, and facial pain. Multiple medicines are available to help, but when you're dealing with a serious case, surgery is usually the best bet to feel well again.

Sleep apnea is a condition where the quality of your sleep is reduced, either because there are obstructions to the free flow of air in the throat and nose, or because your brain has trouble sending the adequate signals to control your breathing patterns.

In the first case, the effect of gravity over your body when you're lying in bed, coupled with septal deviation and the relaxation of tissues in the throat (which sometimes can lead to the unintentional obstruction of the airway), lead to problems in breathing. Sometimes you will suddenly stop breathing and resume a while later.

This irregularity reduces the oxygen levels in your body which can lead to memory problems, moodiness, low concentration, and even brain damage, If you suffer from this condition you feel very tired every day, even if you spent eight or more hours in bed.

Before you address the deviation of your septum, there are some measures you can take that will improve the quality of your nights. If you have the habit of sleeping on your back you need to change to a prone or side-sleeping position, as sleeping on your back causes the collapse of tissue in the throat area, leading to longer periods of apnea.

To train yourself for this change, you can sew a tennis ball to the back part of the shirt that you use to sleep, so that every time your body tries to go back to that familiar position, the ball will gently nudge it back to the correct spot.

There are other ways to tackle the issue, including elevated mattresses, pillows, bedside breathing pumps, oral appliances and more. These tools can give you an easier time as you start preparing for having your deviated septum corrected.

Read on to understand how your deviated septum interacts with sleep apnea.

Can a Deviated Septum Cause Sleep Apnea?

While having a deviated septum is not the number one condition that enables sleep apnea - it is a wider collection of facts such as sleeping position, turbinate shape, sinus performance, as well as position of the jaw and throat tissues - it is one of the major reasons why you can't breathe well at night. Your body prefers breathing through the nose, as the air comes into your body, is warmed, moisturized, and purified in the right way to be easier on your lungs.

When your septum has a deviation, the airflow in each nostril could be different or, in extreme cases, both could have very limited space. To further complicate the issue, since this condition enables other problems such as sinusitis and allergies, the tissue inside your nose gets larger, leading to more blockage.

If pulling air through your nose is difficult, your body has to make a greater effort to get the oxygen it needs. When you couple a deviated septum with sleeping on your back, then each taking breath can be a tremendous task as you're always grasping for air at night. This means that you don't get all the oxygen you need to repair your body and you're not reaping all the benefits of sleeping well. In the long term, it could lead to very serious heart and brain problems.

Can Fixing a Deviated Septum Cure Sleep Apnea?

Having surgery performed on your septum to correct the deviation is a way to greatly improve the quality of your breathing at night. It is a very decisive step to curing sleep apnea, though some other tools and/or treatments might be required to completely recover.

The good news is, even if you experienced moodiness, lack of concentration, low memory, and brain damage in the past as a result of sleep apnea, correcting your septum and restoring your breathing capacities will not only treat these issues, it will also reverse some of the damage caused; it's not only going back to your old self, it is also feeling better than you used to feel.

What is Involved in Deviated Septum Surgery for Sleep Apnea?

It is vital that you start sleeping well as soon as possible, as it is a critical body function to maintain your wellbeing. Here are the steps you can take to seek treatment:

After you've completely recovered, you'll find that you have a much easier time breathing. In time, your mornings will be more energetic because you're resting much better than you used to. This surgery is relatively simple when compared to other more intrusive ones and yet it can have a huge impact on your quality of life. So, what are you waiting for? Say goodbye to those tiresome nights and start taking the steps to get all the rest you deserve.

References and further reading: