Broken nose or a nasal fracture is one of the most common injuries. Since it is defined as a break or crack within the bone or cartilage of your nose, it affects numerous segments of your health, including intolerable pain or inability to breathe properly. Here are some basic pieces of information about how you could recognize and treat such severe injuries successfully.
What symptoms can you recognize?
There are several salient symptoms that could be easily recognized. If you are afraid that your nose might be broken, the first symptom that will signal you that is the intolerable pain. If the nose is broken, pain is inevitable. However, pain is not always a characteristic of broken nose since the bone could be just hurt, but not cracked.
If there is swelling around the nose, it is likely that your nose is broken. If that happens, don’t be afraid, for this is how your body is trying to warn you that something went wrong and tries to repair it. Since swelling slows the process of healing, you should immediately reduce it by applying ice.
Swelling is usually followed by bruising around your nose and eyes. Since these areas are extremely sensitive, bruises could also appear even if your nose isn’t broken. Bleeding is also one of the most commonly recorded symptoms. There are numerous situations that could cause it, but you shouldn’t panic. Some people experience such situations constantly, so it doesn’t mean that you have cracked your nose. However, if it is preceded by some other symptoms or if the bleeding cannot be stopped, you should visit a doctor.
Broken nose could also result in the nose deformation, especially if the injury is serious. If you notice that your nose is different, for instance, if it is bent or crooked, you should immediately visit a doctor for several reasons. The most important one is that a misshapen nose isn’t its natural state, which could further influence its function. Blocked nasal packages or pain during breathing signal you that you aren’t breathing properly. However, bent or crooked nose could also be influenced by bruising and swelling, and as soon as they disappear, your nose could gain its natural shape.
Diagnosis of a broken nose
If you are afraid that your nose might be broken, the best way to determine this is to visit a doctor. Once you do that, you will know what exactly you are supposed to do. Firstly, a doctor will perform physical tests, such as touching the sore area in order to establish the diagnosis.
If doctors are not sure about what they see, they usually sent a patient to further examination, which includes X-ray or CT scan. These tests are very exact and they are usually applied to patients who underwent larger facial injuries.
Finally, after the analysis, if you are in pain, you might be given a local anesthetic before the treatment.
What does the treatment include?
There are numerous ways to treat a broken nose. Depending on the sole injury, you could perform first aid on your own or ask for a professional opinion. Although first aid could be helpful, it is usually advised to people to ask for a medical examination and treatment. That is how you will be sure that your healing is completely successful.
If the injury is really severe, a doctor might pack your nose with gauze, which would fix your nose and enable its successful recovery. Another often used method is placing a splint on the nose.
According to various examinations, a doctor will prescribe adequate medications and antibiotics to the patient. Pain-killers are prescribed in order to make it easier for a patient to tolerate pain, while antibiotics are supposed to prevent growth of bacteria and cure infections.
If the injury is severe, rhinoplasty is one of the best possible solutions. This medical action is performed in order to realign a patient’s nose. Dr Dona, rhinoplasty expert from Sydney, claims that this is very complex and precise treatment and that is why it requires that the doctor have lots of experience. It includes several steps, from determining how badly the nose is hurt, to its repairing. One of the types of rhinoplasty is septorhinoplasty, during which nasal septum is repaired.
A closed reduction surgery is another way to realign a patient’s nose. It includes giving a local anesthetic, after which a doctor manually fixes the nose.
Both rhinoplasty and a closed reduction surgery aren’t performed until a week or so because the nose has to heal before it is being reconstructed. Doctors usually wait swelling and bruising to disappear before they do such medical performances.
Finally, as you probably know, there are numerous accidents that cause a broken nose. You could always take them into consideration in order to prevent such injury. However, even if something like that happens to you, don’t despair. Although it is extremely painful, broken nose is easily treated and it doesn’t leave any permanent consequences.
