Breathing and Tip Problems After Rhinoplasty Surgery

I had a septoplasty and Rhinoplasty procedures around over a month ago. I went to the doctor especially because I couldn’t breathe very well, and because I was there, I decided to ask the surgeon to remove the hump I had on my nose. I had an open rhinoplasty surgery and after removing the cast 7 days later, the doctor saw that I had a big hematoma on the right side. He said that during the surgery on that side, I bled a little more, but not to worry because it will go down. I think the profile looks great, but the problem is from the front. The nose tip goes a little (more) to the left. I know my nostrils look different, but I don’t understand why the tip of the nose goes to the left. Is it because of the swelling/hematoma? Will the bridge of the nose narrow in the future? Also, I still can’t breathe through my right nostril. Some air goes in and comes out but when I look inside everything looks “glued”; I tried using salt water but, it didn't help. I can breathe better if I use nasal spray, but I try not to use so much because I was dependent on it for a couple of years some time ago.

Rhinoplasty and breathing problems

Thanks for your question and follow-up comments. It is good to see you're getting some improvement in inhalation at three months. As you can see time can be an important factor with rhinoplasty. Has the tip deviation improved? The problem with inhalation can come from residual internal swelling. You may want to ask your surgeon (if you don't know) if he did any work with your turbinates or if on re-examination he discovered the turbinates to be prominent. Another important test to perform to assess inspiration difficulty is a test called the cottle test. You can perform this yourself. Place your index finger at the side of the of your nose on your cheek just above your nostril. Gently pull laterally and see if your breathing improves. If it does you may have "internal valve collapse" which likely was not caused by the surgery but always existed. There are surgical techniques to fix this. I hope this helps.


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