How Does Nasal Septoplasty Work?

I believe my job as a sinus surgeon in Los Angeles is twofold: 1) help my patients feel and breathe better, and 2) to communicate clearly why and how we hope to do so.

Doctors’ offices are confusing places already. When you take into account the foreign jargon, the confusing diagnosis, the often-maddening lack of certainty, and the general sense of lost control of your own body, it’s no wonder so many people hate to visit their doctors.

At the Los Angeles Sinus Institute, we believe that explaining our patients’ options is a way of returning the power of choice and agency to them. We offer a wide array of choices for sinus surgery, from turbinate reduction surgery to balloon sinuplasty, and often use and distribute materials to help patients understand what’s at stake, and how each procedure works.

Septoplasty, for instance, is generally understood as a procedure to correct or repair a deviated septum. In the most general terms, it works as described on the Johns Hopkins website, to wit:

Septoplasty surgery is performed under general anesthesia. Through an incision made inside the nostril, the tissue (mucosa) covering the septum is lifted up to allow the surgeon to see the bone and cartilage directly. The deviated portions of the bone and cartilage are then either removed or reshaped, leaving behind enough nondeviated bone and cartilage to maintain the shape of the nose. The incision is then stitched closed.

To learn more about this or any other procedure in our sinus surgery center, you need only ask. Contact us today.