How Many People Have Long Term Difficulty Breathing After Rhinoplasty?

It is certainly an important consideration.  Careful pre operative assessment should help avoid breathing problems.  I commonly perform inferior turbinate reduction to avoid airway problems after surgery and this has been quite successful.  Ask your surgeon about it.

    Hopefully, your rhinoplasty surgeon will give you an honest estimate of the percentage of his or her patients who have had breathing problems following rhinoplasty.  I do think that these problems are technique dependent, and certain surgeons have more postsurgical breathing problems than others.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

A well-performed rhinoplasty using modern techniques of structural grafting will often improve your breathing instead of making it worse.  

Dear dasikins,


Most experts in rhinoplasty can prevent problems with breathing after surgery

Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but we do surgical maneuvers inside the nose to help prevent post-operative collapse

Seek out a surgeon who does a significant number of rhinoplasties for both cosmetic and functional issues


Best regards,

Nima Shemirani

The better question is not how many people have breathing problems after rhinoplasty but will you? If your surgery is performed by a competent rhinoplasty surgeon who also addresses other potential/existent intranasal breathing issues such as enlarged turbinates and septal deformities, the risks for you should be fairly low.