If you have a snoring issue, the problem may very well be your septum. Specifically a deviated septum, which occurs when the nasal septum happens to be off center or bent, can make it harder to breathe.
Some estimates suggest that eight out of every 10 people unknowingly possess some sort of nasal septum misalignment issue, so it’s more common than you might have initially thought. However, there is something you can do about it, and this can lead to a cure for excessive snoring.
If snoring is something you’re battling with, you should make it a priority to talk to an experienced surgeon so you can find out whether or not you’re a good candidate for this procedure. While rhinoplasty is a cosmetic procedure that cannot cure snoring, septoplasty, which deals with fixing a deviated septum, certainly may.
Septoplasty
People sometimes make jokes about snoring, but it’s not such a comical topic when you consider that snoring is often a symptom of an underlying medical problem. If a deviated septum is the cause of your breathing difficulty, then you can have it surgically repaired via a treatment called septoplasty.
When you consult with a surgeon, he or she will assess your septum by looking into your nostrils and will inform you of your possible options. Rhinoplasty, or more popularly referred to as simply a ‘nose job,’ can be combined with septoplasty, a procedure that is corrective in nature and not cosmetic. Although these are two different procedures, they can be potentially complementary to one another, should your surgeon see fit.
Procedure
The procedure to correct a nasal septum problem is performed under general anesthesia, and it can last as long as three and a half hours, although it’s typically about an hour. Since the surgery is relatively uncomplicated, the surgeon does it on an outpatient basis, which will allow you to go home the same day that the surgery is performed. Additionally, septoplasty will leave you with no bruising of the external tissues, allowing you to make a good recovery in two weeks.
Snoring can affect both your own sleep and that of your partners, but the end results of a septoplasty can help correct the issue permanently as long as the deviated septum is properly fixed during the procedure. As with all plastic surgery procedures, you need to go in for a consultation with your surgeon to ensure that all of your questions or concerns are answered, so you can find the results you need to sleep snore free.