What are some of the reasons I can’t breathe out of my nose?

You may not be able to breathe out of your nose due to growths/polyps, swelling from allergies, a deviated septum, or an infection. ENT surgeon Moshe Ephrat, MD, describes the various causes of nasal congestion that hinder breathing.

Transcript

00:00

That swelling can be due to allergy. So dust, dust mites, pets, pet dander

00:07

can cause the inside of the nose to swell and be congested. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19

So nasal congestion, or what we call nasal obstruction, is very common. There are some signs and symptoms

00:26

that we think are more alarming than others. So if it's a sudden change in the way you're breathing is, especially if it's one-sided and it's persistent and doesn't

00:36

go away, that really needs to be evaluated by your ENT surgeon, because we want to rule out some sort of growth,

00:44

a polyp, things that maybe are not as common that would cause only one side to be different than the other,

00:50

especially if it's associated with any bleeding or intermittent bleeding. Otherwise, commonly, nasal congestion is often--

00:58

or obstruction is often-- due to swelling inside the nose. That swelling can be due to allergy--

01:05

so dust, dust mites, pets, pet dander can cause the inside of the nose to swell and be congested.

01:13

That's a common cause. And then there are anatomical things, things that are inside the nose, the way it's made,

01:19

structural changes. So some patients have a deviated septum. And I'm sure it's a common term that everybody uses.

01:25

But your septum is what separates the left and right side of your nose. And not everybody is born with a septum that's straight in the middle.

01:32

So if your septum is deviated or pushed over to one side of the nose, it's going to result in airflow to that side being a lot more

01:40

compromised than the other. So certain things like that can be repaired. Sometimes patients can have chronic polyps.

01:48

Or these are allergic or chronic inflammatory polyps, which are soft tissue growths in the nose that can be found out

01:56

by a good examination. So besides allergy, or polyps, or structural changes,

02:02

sometimes it's something fairly transient. And that would be an infection. So if you have a sudden increase in amount of mucus that's generated in your nose, it's discolored,

02:11

and you have some pressure in your face, facial pressure, sinus pressure that doesn't go away, that's going to be a common symptom of a sinus infection.

02:20

And a sinus infection is gonna cause a lot of swelling in your nose, a lot of increased mucus production, and you're not gonna breathe out of your nose

02:27

very well. Also, if you're not really breathing out of your nose well, you're not going to smell well. And so oftentimes when we're sick,

02:33

when we have a cold or virus or flu, you know, our sense of smell decreases also. If you have symptoms that don't go away after 7 to 10 days,

02:42

get it looked at. And you may have a sinus infection that needs to be treated with an antibiotic. [AUDIO LOGO]