Empty Nose Syndrome – How To Prevent It And What To Do If You Have It Already
- Posted on: Apr 5 2017
What is “empty nose syndrome”? Patients see this term when reading on the internet about sinus surgery. It describes a debilitating condition in the nose after sinus surgery. These patients have congestion, nasal dryness, nasal and sinus pressure, and constant sinus infections that fail to respond to medical therapy.
The bottom line in this condition is that the sinus procedure that was performed was much too aggressive. The natural structures in the nose called turbinates that are present to humidify, warm, and filter the air we breathe have been resected by the surgeon. This leaves an overly dry nasal lining with tremendous vulnerability to infections, allergies, and pollution.
The best treatment for this problem is prevention. It is totally preventable as these aggressive surgical procedures are not needed. In fact, for the most part, surgery is almost never needed with modern balloon sinuplasty technology.
Balloon sinuplasty allows us to open the blocked sinus cavities with no tissue removal.
Modern reduction of the swollen turbinates to improve breathing should never involve resecting the turbinates but instead a gentle suction of the swelling similar to liposuction is all that is needed.
If you or a loved one has the misfortune of already having empty nose syndrome, we can help by performing balloon sinuplasty and antibiotic washing as a simple office procedure along with specialized moisturizing nasal sprays that we can have made by a compounding pharmacy. The resected turbinates can also be plumped back up with a special injection using a natural filler called Restylane.
Empty nose syndrome should be a thing of the past. Seek modern minimally invasive balloon sinuplasty techniques for your nasal and sinus issues.
Daniel Slaughter, MD
Tagged with: Balloon Sinuplasty, Empty nose syndrome, Sinus surgery
Posted in: Sinus and Nasal
