Breathing properly is important to your overall health, as every system in your body relies on oxygen. An inadequate oxygen supply can impact stress management, energy levels, cognitive abilities, and digestion. Issues that prevent you from breathing properly through your nose can impact sleeping and lead to other issues, like bad breath and dental decay.
“There can be several reasons for nasal airway obstruction, but the two main causes are structural abnormalities or inflammation due to allergies or other medical causes,” Dr. Ahmed Sufyan, an otolaryngologist at Mid-Michigan Ear, Nose, and Throat, who performs procedures at McLaren Greater Lansing. “In the case of inflammation, allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis are the most common culprits.”
Inflammatory changes
Some common inflammatory reasons for not being able to breathe through your nose include allergies, sinusitis, colds/illness, nasal polyps, a deviated septum, exposure to irritants like smoke or dust, and swollen adenoids. All of these can cause inflammation that leads to congestion and difficulty breathing through your nose.
Most of these conditions can be treated with medicines that reduce the inflammation and allow you to breathe normally again.
Structural abnormalities
These can include genetic abnormalities (such as nasal valve collapse, weak structure or cartilage, enlarged turbinates, or a flat or concave bridge) or changes from aging (such as a nose gradually drooping to create an obstruction).
Another cause for structural problems includes trauma experienced during sports play or an accident. If you fall and bump your nose, or get hit in the face with an object, this can cause difficulty breathing through your nose.
“When we see a patient, we can differentiate who has what. It might require some additional testing (like an allergy test), and if there is a history of sinus problems, then we might need to get imaging to check out the sinuses,” said Dr. Sufyan. “We want to treat the patient as a whole and identify not just allergies, but any structural problems, too, because breathing and adequate air flow are very vital to health.”
If a patient is identified as having minor sinus disease or a blockage without polyps, minor procedures assisted by new technology can be used in the office to correct these problems. Someone with severe anatomical or structural crookedness might need to have surgery in the hospital.
No matter the cause, struggling with breathing through your nose can impact your quality of life. It’s important to get the care you need to correct the problem. For more information about nasal obstruction, schedule an appointment with Dr. Sufyan’s office.
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