"I can't breathe well through my nose. Can you fix this?"

Good question. First, let's quickly talk about what causes difficulty breathing. It can come from a number of sources. The first one, and you may have heard this frequently, is a deviated septum. What does that mean? Well, first of all, the septum means a partition, something that's separating two chambers. You have a nasal septum, which is the partition between the right and the left nasal cavity.

If it's deviated, it's deflected into one side or the other, making that nostril smaller and more narrow. The other side, you would think, actually is much larger so you can breathe through it, but there's something called the nasal cycle and that nasal cycle means that one side works for around four hours and then it gets converted over to the other side which would work most of the time. If there's a deviated septum narrowing that area, narrowing that nasal passageway, then for around four hours you're not going to be able to breathe very well until such time as the other one opens up.

So that's a deviated septum. There are other causes of obstruction, like a collapsed external valve or internal valve. Now, that's not your typical "Oh, my nose is collapsing" which everyone talks about. That simply means that there is a weak area here or up here, and so when you breathe in, rather than the nose staying in its regular shape, it falls in. So it will happen with everybody if you breathe in quickly. It always goes in. But if you breathe regularly and normally, and it's collapsing in, then that could be an external or internal valve collapse that can be corrected.

Yes, all of those can be corrected at the same time that a cosmetic rhinoplasty is done. You can do it separately alone or it can be done at the same time that you have a cosmetic rhinoplasty.

Causes of Nasal Obstructions That May Affect Breathing

Dr. Philip Miller addresses several causes of nasal obstructions that may be preventing a person from breathing successfully or at all through their nose. These can be fixed surgically but it is important to pinpoint the problem first.