Where to start
Where to start
Three questions, and then the pages on this site that cover what you described. It sorts reading, not noses: nobody here has seen yours, and what is actually causing what is settled by an examination. Your answers stay in this browser and are not sent anywhere.
If something is wrong right now
Do not read your way through this. Contact the person who operated on you, and go to an emergency department if you cannot reach them. The warning signs page lists what needs attention the same day.
What this site has, sorted by what brought you here
The lists below are the same ones the three questions above lead to. If you would rather not answer anything, read the heading that fits and skip the rest.
Answer the three questions above and the pages that cover it appear here.
If it is your breathing
One side is more blocked than the other
What you described: a nose that is more blocked on one side than the other
A septum sitting off centre is the usual reason one side is worse than the other, and it is the one thing in this area that has been tested in a randomised trial.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Which structure is blocking my nose: the septum, the turbinates, the valve, or more than one of them?
- What did you find when you examined both passages, and what changed after the decongestant?
Both sides feel blocked, not just one
What you described: blockage on both sides rather than on one
The turbinates and the septum are different structures and are often addressed in the same operation. Which of them is responsible, or whether both are, is decided by an examination inside the nose rather than by where the blockage is felt.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Which structure is blocking my nose: the septum, the turbinates, the valve, or more than one of them?
- What did you find when you examined both passages, and what changed after the decongestant?
The side of my nose draws inward when I breathe in hard
What you described: the side wall of the nose drawing inward on a hard breath in
That is what a nasal valve problem looks like from the outside, and it is a distinct cause of obstruction rather than a version of a deviated septum.
Start with
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Which structure is blocking my nose: the septum, the turbinates, the valve, or more than one of them?
- What did you find when you examined both passages, and what changed after the decongestant?
It is still blocked after months of sprays or drops
What you described: obstruction that has not settled after months of medical treatment
This is the exact population a randomised trial studied, so it is the one place on this site where the evidence speaks most directly to the question.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- What have you actually seen inside my nose, and with what instrument?
- Is my blockage from the septum, the valve, the turbinates, the lining, or more than one of those?
If it is how your nose looks
A bump on the bridge, most obvious from the side
What you described: a bump on the bridge
What a bump is made of, bone or cartilage or both, changes what is done about it, and that is settled by examination rather than by a photograph.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Is my hump mostly bone, mostly cartilage, or both, and can you show me that on my own photographs?
- How will you rebuild the middle third once the bridge is lowered, and what happens if it is not rebuilt?
A tip that reads as round or heavy
What you described: a tip that reads as round or heavy
A bulbous tip is made by the cartilages beneath it and the skin over them, and the thickness of that skin is what limits how much of any change shows. It is the most useful thing to have discussed before anybody agrees anything.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Is my tip round because of the cartilage, the skin, or both, and can you show me which on my own photographs?
- How thick is my skin at the tip, and what does that mean for how defined the result can look?
It looks bent or off centre
What you described: a nose that looks bent or off centre
A nose that looks crooked from the front very often has a breathing half to it, so this page has been paired with the breathing pillar on purpose.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Is my septum bent as well as the outside of my nose, and did you establish that by internal examination rather than from photographs?
- How straight do you expect my nose to be, and what happens if it drifts back as it heals?
It looks wide from the front
What you described: a nose that looks wide from the front
Three different things get called wide, and they are changed by different operations, so the first job is working out which one is being described.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Is my nose wide at the bony bridge, at the tip, at the base, or at more than one, and can you show me which on my own photographs?
- If the bridge is part of it, what will you do about that, and does the plan include osteotomies?
The tip points down, and more when I smile
What you described: a tip that points down, and more when you smile
Tip position and what a smile does to it are measured against published angle ranges, which is a more useful conversation than a photograph.
Start with
Usually discussed for this
That is what the operation is called, not advice to have it. Whether an operation is the right answer at all, and which one, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose.
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- What is my nasolabial angle now, and what angle are you planning for, measured on my own photographs?
- Is my tip low because of rotation, because of lost projection, or because of the bridge above it?
If you have already had an operation
Less than twelve months ago
What you described: an operation less than twelve months ago
The usual waiting period before a second operation is at least twelve months, and a nose under a year old is still changing, which is why these three pages come before anything else.
Start with
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- What exactly is wrong now, and which part of it can be corrected by surgery?
- Do you have the operative notes from my first operation, and what do they say about the cartilage that remains?
More than twelve months ago
What you described: an operation more than twelve months ago
Past twelve months the shape is generally considered settled, although thick skin and revision cases can continue to change beyond it.
Start with
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- What exactly is wrong now, and which part of it can be corrected by surgery?
- Do you have the operative notes from my first operation, and what do they say about the cartilage that remains?
I am not sure what happened, or what I am looking at
What you described: an operation, and uncertainty about what you are looking at
Four different situations share the phrase "it went wrong", and they need four different responses, so the first page separates them.
Start with
Two questions from that page, worth taking to a consultation
- Is what I am describing a complication, or is it a nose that has not settled yet?
- How long should I wait before this is worth judging at all?
You said breathing matters too. The operation that addresses the shape and the septum together is covered on its own page, and it is worth reading before deciding the two are separate problems.
Wherever you are in this
Because nothing is booked yet
There is no hurry in any of this. The vocabulary is the part that makes everything else readable, so it is worth ten minutes before the rest.
Because you are comparing
Two of these are about reading what you are shown rather than about any particular surgeon: what a before and after photograph can and cannot tell you, and what the published complication figures actually count.
Because you have a quote or a consultation
This site publishes no prices and holds no verified price data, so it cannot tell you whether a number is fair. What it can do is tell you what a quote has to contain before the number on it means anything.
Because the operation has happened
If something is wrong now rather than unsatisfying, the warning signs page is the one to open first, and the person who operated on you is the one to contact.
Who answers questions
Doctors on this site who list breathing, functional or septorhinoplasty work among what they operate on
- Prof. Güven Güvenç ENT, Head and Neck Surgeon
- Dr. Okan Parmaksız Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Op. Dr. Songül Dursun Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Dr. Tugce Simsek Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
Doctors on this site who list revision rhinoplasty among what they operate on
- Dr. Okan Parmaksız Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rasit Cevizci Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon
- Op. Dr. Songül Dursun Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Dr. Tugce Simsek Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
Doctors on this site listed on this site
- Dr. Arda Akgün Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon
- Prof. Güven Güvenç ENT, Head and Neck Surgeon
- Op. Dr. Hakkı İzmirli Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeon
- Dr. Handan Şimşek Turan Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon
- Dr. Okan Parmaksız Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rasit Cevizci Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon
- Op. Dr. Songül Dursun Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Op. Dr. Teoman Eraslan Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon
- Dr. Tugce Simsek Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist
- Dr. Şuheda Çıldır Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon
They are in this site's usual order and nothing above places one ahead of another. This is a filter on what each of them publishes about their own work, not a recommendation about who suits you. All of them, with their profiles, and a question goes to the one you name.
Sources
Every source below was opened and checked. We link to health authorities, peer-reviewed journals and professional bodies, and to nothing else.
- Clinical effectiveness of septoplasty versus medical management for nasal airways obstruction: multicentre, open label, randomised controlled trialThe BMJ, via PubMedThe NAIROS trial. Randomised evidence that septoplasty outperforms medical management in adults with obstruction associated with a deviated septum.
- Position statement: nasal valve repairAmerican Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck SurgerySpecialty society position that nasal valve compromise is a distinct, treatable cause of obstruction.
- Development and validation of the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scaleOtolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, via PubMedThe validated instrument used to measure nasal obstruction before and after surgery.
- RhinoplastyStatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf (National Library of Medicine)Peer-reviewed clinical reference covering anatomy, technique selection and complications.
- Rhinoplasty tip-shaping surgeryStatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf (National Library of Medicine)Clinical reference on tip support, projection and rotation.
- Analysis of imperative facial angles for rhinoplastyIndian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, via PubMed CentralPublished nasofrontal and nasolabial angle ranges, including the differences between men and women.
- Revision rates and risk factors of 175,842 patients undergoing septorhinoplastyJAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, via PubMed CentralThe largest published dataset on how often revision surgery is actually needed.
- Discovering the true resolution of postoperative swelling after rhinoplasty using 3-dimensional photographic assessmentPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, via PubMed CentralEvidence behind the twelve to eighteen month settling timeline quoted on this site.
What this page is not
It is not an assessment and it does not tell you which operation you need. It matched what you typed against the pages on this site, which is a sorting job, not a clinical one. Which structure is actually responsible, and whether an operation is the right answer at all, is decided by somebody who can look inside your nose. This site publishes no prices and holds no verified price data, so it cannot tell you whether a quote is fair either, only what a quote has to contain before its number means anything.