Don’t underestimate a stuffy nose! It can cause serious health problems
The amount of air that passes through the nose during the day is about 10,000 liters. Almost everyone, whether children or adults, can experience nasal congestion from time to time. Usually, a stuffy nose is not taken seriously and attempts are made to solve it with temporary solutions. However, while chronic nasal congestion causes problems that reduce quality of life, such as insomnia and fatigue, it can lead to much more serious problems in the long run, such as heart enlargement.
Illnesses such as the common cold or sinusitis can cause temporary nasal congestion, but this is not a problem. Chronic nasal congestion, which is caused by the curvature of the inner part of the nose, i.e. deviation or enlargement of the turbinate, adversely affects the body by causing oxygen deprivation in the long run. If there is not enough fresh air in our lungs, the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange is impaired, our blood does not carry enough oxygen to the tissues and tissue damage occurs over time. The person who cannot sleep also develops fatigue and concentration problems, after high blood pressure, arrhythmia starts in the heart and after a while the heart grows.
One of the main symptoms in patients with chronic nasal congestion is snoring, and when the person wakes up in the morning, there is a dry feeling in his mouth.
The curvature of the inner part of the nose (deviation) is the curvature of the middle part of the nose that usually develops after trauma. Even in the mother’s womb during pregnancy, the nose can be traumatized during the baby’s rotational movements, and it plays a role in the development of malformation during birth and childhood strokes. Not every abnormality causes a stuffy nose. Swelling of the structures in front of the nose, which we call the concha, known in society as the concha, is also a common cause of chronic nasal congestion. Hormonal changes during menstruation and pregnancy in women cause swelling of the turbinate.
Persistent allergies also play a major role in the causes of chronic nasal congestion. Especially in patients with an allergic background, structures such as polyps can completely block the nose. Nasal congestion can also occur as a result of a reaction to a substance that irritates the nose. The most common is tobacco smoke. Even if some patients have successful nasal surgery, they cannot fully relax as long as they continue to smoke. One of the uncommon causes is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); Treatment should prevent stomach acid from escaping to the nasal passages.
If the cause of the nasal congestion is an abnormality, surgery is the only solution. Correcting the curvature of bone and cartilage corrects the breathing problem. Now we can perform nasal operations in a very comfortable and easy way. I think we’ve prevented nose surgery from being a dreaded operation.
In frequently recurring sinusitis attacks, we first dry the inflammation with medicines and then surgically treat anatomical problems such as deviation and concha bullosa.