Deviated Septum Surgery

Knowing More about Deviated Septum Surgery

Nose is one of the most important organs that can protect our body from bad influences on the environment. Do you have a problem with your nose such difficult to breathe on one side of your nose before or after sleeping? It is necessary for you to consult your doctor. It might you have a deviated septum. It is because the cartilage in your nose bends to the left or to right. Hence, you are recommended to undergo a deviated septum surgery which is also called septoplasty.

A deviated septum usually occurs due to congenital defects or injury of nasal trauma. Nasal trauma caused by many accidents that are blunt, so the risk of the trauma is several of complications such as infection, nasal obstruction, scarring and fibrosis, secondary deformities, sinusitis, and perforation of the nose. By time, trauma to the nose is divided into old and new trauma. The new trauma occurs because the callus was not yet fully formed and old trauma occurs when the callus hardened. Based on the relationship with the outer ear, there is such an open and closed trauma. Directions of trauma determine the damage, such as minor trauma caused by the trauma comes from the lateral, whereas severe trauma will lead to the nasal deviated septum. Nasal septum is part of the nasal cavity which divides right and left. Nasal septum serves as the support of the nose. It is divided into two anatomic parts including the anterior and posterior. The nasal septum is straight in the middle for normal position, but on adult, it is usually not perfectly straight in the midline. The deviated septum can cause nose obstruction if the deviation is severe. An accident on the face is the main factor for deviated septum in adults.

The symptom of most deviated septum is the difficulty to breathe with nose. Difficulty in breathing usually occurs on one nose, whether it is right or left. In some cases, the deviated septum may also cause sinusitis. The deviated septum surgery is performed to reposition the crooked cartilage by only taking out the excessive part. This surgery can be effectively to prevent further nose complication. After septoplasty there will be discomfort in the nose, therefore you need to take a pain relief (analgesic) in the first few days after the surgery. You have to avoid a direct contact of your nose. You also need to consume an antibiotic to avoid secondary infection.

Afrin Side Effects

Watch out for Afrin Side Effects

Suffering a nasal congestion is really uncomfortable for people because it affects their breathing. Never mind that it is caused by allergy, deviated septum, chronic sinus infections, polyps or only extreme cold, once people have this problem, they tend to look for effective and immediate medicine to relief their pain. For this reason, people like to use nasal decongestant spray since they work directly to relief the pain from its source. One of the well known over the counter product for this kind of medication is Afrin. Many people like to use Afrin because it can relieve their nasal congestion very quickly. However, only few people know that there are some Afrin side effects that can cause more impairment to their nasal congestion problem.

Like other nasal decongestant sprays, Afrin works by making the blood vessels and spongy tissue inside the nose to recoil, but it is only for a temporary time. After a few hours, the blood vessel and spongy tissue will spring back bigger than before it was recoiled and cause more serious nasal congestion than before. Nonetheless, many people have not understood this Afrin side effect and often go back using the spray which of course will give nothing except a continuing cycle of nasal congestion. This is the most serious problem of Afrin side effects because the more times we repeat using it the more serious nasal congestion problems we will get.

Another side effect of Afrin is that it can increase the heart rate and blood pressure of the users. People with heart problem and blood pressure problem are the first people who must avoid using Afrin because of this side effect. One more effect is that it can also cause urinary problem. Therefore, it can be concluded that this spray is bad not only for our congestion problem but also for our overall health.

There are some other ways to relief nasal congestion if we want to avoid Afrin side effects. Among of them are by using saline spray, and neti pot. Old fashioned as it is, neti pot is a good solution which we can do easily and without so much bad effects. You can have neti pot with hot shower more than once a day for many days and it is no problem, unlike Afrin which cannot be taken for more than three days at a time. It is true that neti pot can only irrigate your nasal congestion and cannot cure infection, but it can give you the same relief you are looking for, as well as prevent your self from Afrin side effects.