Many patients shy away from septal surgery because they are afraid of the difficult period after surgery, but you should know that a short period of post-operative pain can be replaced by a permanent smoothness and health.
Generally, it takes 2 months for the incision to heal and the mucosa to recover after septal surgery. Let’s talk about what uncomfortable conditions you may encounter during these 2 months and how to proactively deal with them.
Nasal tamponade: Nasal tamponade is required for 24-48 hours after surgery to compress and stop bleeding and prevent bruising under the mucosa of the nasal septum to form a hematoma. Patients may experience pain in the back of the nose, around the eyes and head during these 48 hours, but it is within the patient’s tolerable range, which is normal and need not be overly nervous, and will be relieved after the filler is removed. However, if there is eye pain accompanied by vision loss, eye movement disorder and other uncomfortable symptoms, you should tell your doctor in time. Patients need to breathe through their mouths during nasal stuffing, so they are prone to dry mouth and need to drink warm water a few times. The process of removing the stuffing may also be uncomfortable, so patients should be prepared for it.
Nasal bleeding: A few days after surgery, there may be a little blood oozing from the nasal cavity or a little blood in the sputum, which is normal. After the compression of the filling to stop the bleeding, even after the filling is removed, there is usually no large amount of nasal bleeding. If the patient has a large amount of blood flowing down the nostrils or spitting out from the mouth, it means that the patient’s wound is bleeding again. In this case, the doctor should be informed immediately to deal with it. Therefore, patients should also be reminded not to spit hard, cough violently, sneeze or wash their hair with hot water during the 48-hour filling period, and the filling should not be removed privately to avoid triggering nasal bleeding.
Dry and itchy nose: Before surgery, patients are prone to dryness because the wider side of the nasal cavity needs to work twice as much, and this situation can be improved after surgery. The septum surgery itself does not cause much damage to the nasal mucosa, and the surgeon will try to minimize the damage to the normal nasal mucosa, so it will not cause nasal dryness due to excessive damage to the nasal mucosa.
If nasal dryness occurs after septum deviation surgery, it may still be related to the patient’s chronic rhinitis. Because of the atrophy of the nasal mucosa in patients with chronic rhinitis, the secretion will be reduced, and it will manifest as dryness and itchiness when there is no runny nose. For patients who experience nasal dryness, a little peppermint oil and nasal drops can be used to moisturize and protect the mucous membrane.