Sinus? Swollen turbinates?
The time of year when reports of sinus woe peak is upon us. At least in Northern climes.
Trouble is, what’s obstructing your breathing and creating some major misery may not be sinusitis at all.
It may even be something that people don’t hear much about.
Here’s how to tell: during cold and flu seasons, if your nose is stopped up and you find yellow, gray or green gunk running from your nose and if you have a fever, it may be sinusitis. Actually, an X-ray of your upper nose is required for the diagnosis.
A more common reason is due to some structures in your upper nose known as turbinates. Their function? To warm and filter air before it flows into the lungs.
Turbinates are covered by gazillions of tiny hairs known as Cilia; they protect the body against irritants in the air and help white blood cells – the body’s roving white knights – battle infections and disease. Turbinates also produce a bacteria-fighting enzyme known as lysozyme to round up and battle infections.
But there is a downside: turbinates are covered with a type of skin found nowhere else in the body. Known as the mucosa, that tissue produces well, mucus and can swell and shrink again in size.
That’s the sticking point: they can swell so much they block the nose’s breathing channels, leaving you feeling stuffed up. The turbinates can engorge with blood in reaction to a cold or infection; the extra blood brings infection fighters to the scene. Same with allergic agents when turbinates become absolutely swollen.
A common nasal surgery is opening the mucosa on the Turbinates and taking away small sections of bone while taking great care to leave as many cilia as possible.
The whole idea is to promote healthy draining of the upper nose and sinus cavities. Given enough congestion, foul germs are trapped to do their evil best creating serious infections in the upper nose.
Turbinate surgery can be done along with other procedures including:
- Rhinoplasty
- Non-surgical rhinoplasty
- Septoplasty, corrective surgery of the septum
Major tip: find a nasal surgeon with as much experience as possible.
(Read more on how to find an excellent nose surgeon who knows noses and turbinates, forward and backwards.)