Thank God for small mercies! Before a major illness strikes there would invariably be forewarning signs and symptoms that force us to take remedial action. Deviated septum is such a condition that gives enough warning signs to tell you that there is something going wrong, and this time it could be within your nasal cavity.

Now this may come as a total surprise to people who are proud of their fine nasal structure and can never imagine that there could be things going wrong inside the nasal cavity. But what are the deviated septum symptoms that should never be ignored?

As it is with most ailments, it always starts simple and in the most unobtrusive way. You may sneeze often; or have frequent pain on your cheeks and face; or have to take frequent medicines for nasal blockage or sinus problems. Perhaps one of the noisiest deviated septum symptoms is snoring, that is compelling enough to push the patient to the doctors’ chamber.

Here are some of the most common deviated septum symptoms, which when ignored can result in a host of breathing and sleeping disorders including sinusitis, nasal bleeding, sleep apnea, habitual snoring and more:

• Breathing difficulties that seem to deteriorate with time. In fact, these problems get further aggravated if you catch cold or have allergies.
• Nasal congestion that defies any kind of medication, normally prescribed for treatment.
• Unexpected nasal bleeding.
• Frequent sinus infections. This is caused when the deviated septum prevents regular sinus drainage and helps in the accumulation of mucus in the sinus cavities. This in turn becomes a breeding ground for bacteria resulting in sinusitis.
• Your have pain on the cheeks, face, areas around the eyes and nose.

Treatment options for deviated septum:

More often than not, deviated nasal septum surgery is the last hope for doctors to bring relief to the patient. In fact, once the deviated septum is repositioned or the extra bone or cartilage removed and repaired, many related problems disappear, never to come back again.

Septoplasty is the most preferred and popular deviated nasal septum surgery both from the perspective of the doctor and the patient. There is also another type of surgery that has a more traditional approach, called Submucous resection or SMR.

Septoplasty is involved with repositioning the deviated septum and SMR essentially aims to remove any bone or cartilage that is displaced and causing the nasal obstruction. In the final analysis, both the types of surgeries aim to clear the nasal passage of any unwanted obstruction.

What is the kind of septal surgery results that can be expected, in case you do decide to get surgery done to get relief from the deviated septum symptoms? While the results do not vary too much from other nasal surgeries when pain, site infection and post-surgical discomfort are concerned, the good news is that in a majority of the cases, septal surgery results remain positive and the after-effects within manageable limits.

Done with local or general anesthesia, septoplasty session is usually over between 60 and 90 minutes. The after effects remain within mild to moderate levels and the usual post-surgery medications are enough to give sustained relief to the patient.