Rhinoplasty improves the appearance of your nose, while other types of nasal surgery are used to treat conditions like blocked sinuses, polyps, or a broken nose.
What is Rhinoplasty?
Rhinoplasty is the medical name for plastic surgery on the nose. Your doctor performs rhinoplasty to change the appearance of your nose in the following ways:
- Reducing its size
- Straightening a crooked nose
- Changing the size, shape, or position of nostrils
- Changing bridge width
- Removing bumps on the bridge
- Changing a nose tip that’s too large, droops, or is upturned
- Correcting nasal asymmetry
When you’re considering plastic surgery, it’s important to talk to your doctor about what you don’t like about your nose and how you’d want to change its appearance.
After your doctor has a clear vision of your expectations, the two of you can talk about the procedure and whether the change you want is possible. This discussion is essential to be sure you have a clear, realistic understanding of the results that are achievable.
What Other Types of Nasal Surgery Are Available?
When nasal congestion persists despite conservative treatment, your doctor may recommend minimally invasive surgery to open blocked sinuses. Your sinuses produce mucus that flows through an opening and into your nose. When chronic sinusitis blocks the opening, enlarged turbinates, nasal polyps, or a deviated (displaced) septum, the mucus gets trapped in the sinus and causes an infection. Blocked sinuses can be reopened with two minimally invasive procedures: functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and balloon sinuplasty.
Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS):
Your doctor at Southern ENT Associated performs FESS using a specialized surgical tool, an endoscope, that gently goes through your nostril to the area of your nose that needs treatment. While FESS treats chronic sinusitis, it’s also used to cut away polyps, reduce the size of turbinates, repair a deviated septum, and remove excess tissues blocking your sinuses.
Balloon Sinuplasty:
Balloon sinuplasty is minimally invasive but not surgical in the sense that it doesn’t cut tissues. It’s for just one purpose: to open blocked sinuses caused by chronic sinusitis. During balloon sinuplasty, a long, narrow instrument with a medical balloon is inserted through your nostril and guided to the sinus opening. Once the instrument is in position, the balloon inflates for a short time. While it swells, it pushes open the sinus and restructures the tissues so they stay open after the balloon deflates.
What is Septorhinoplasty?
Septoplasty is surgery to correct a deviated septum when it interferes with normal breathing. Septorhinoplasty is surgery to repair a broken nose because the procedure combines correcting the septum by restoring the pre-injury appearance of your nose.
When you need rhinoplasty or nasal surgery, call the team at Southern ENT Associates or book an appointment online.