Does Fixing A Deviated Septum Change The Shape Of Your Nose?
Dr. Hootan Zandifar, MD FACS, is a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the ZandifarMD in Beverly Hills, CA. A native of Los Angeles, he received his medical degree from the prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He completed his residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and was then accepted... more
As a facial plastic surgeon who specializes in rhinoplasty and functional nasal surgery, this is a very commonly asked question. The answer to this question truly depends on the need and the want of the patient. The nasal septum is the middle wall of the nose and in the case of a deviated septum, it is crooked to one side or the other. In most people suffering from a deviated septum, this crooked wall is all the way inside the nose and no outside deviation is seen. These patients mostly will suffer from difficulty breathing through their nose or chronic nose bleeds.
A septoplasty (repair of a deviated septum) is the best option for these patients. Through a septoplasty, these patients can have improvement to their nasal breathing. However, when the deviation is purely inside the nose, surgery does not change the outside shape of the nose. Now most patients who desire a change to the outside shape of the nose can have a combined septoplasty and rhinoplasty (nose job) at the same time. With this procedure, the internal deviation of the septum is repaired and the external cosmetic results are achieved.
There are, however, a subset of patients whose septal deviation is so close to the opening of the nose that this is clearly visible from the outside. In these cases, a more complex septoplasty procedure known as an open approach septorhinoplasty can lead to significant cosmetic improvement and functional improvement.
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