Nasal Valve Collapse: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

Due to any injury, aging, or previous rhinoplasty, the nasal valve collapse condition can occur. When you have it, you often need to rely on the breathing strips, as they make it extremely hard for you to breathe. It also makes your nose stuffy, which doesn’t improve.

Luckily, there are surgical and non-surgical treatments available for it. Let’s discuss all those, along with their symptoms and the causes.

What’s Nasal Valve Collapse?

Collapsed nasal valve is a disease in which the patient’s nasal valve narrows or collapses. It could be due to any injury, structural issue, aging, rhinoplasty when wrongly done, and also heavy nose picking. When you have it, you have difficulty breathing, and you have to rely heavily on the nasal strips.

Causes Of Nasal Valve Collapse:

These are the common causes of this condition:

• Injury or trauma: A hit or accident can damage the nose’s support.
• Surgery: Nose jobs like rhinoplasty may change the structure and weaken it.
• Aging: With time, the nose’s cartilage can weaken and lead to collapse.
• Previous nasal procedures: Past surgeries may affect the valve’s strength without meaning to.
• Born with weak nasal structure: Some people naturally have a narrow or weak nasal valve.
• Constant nose pressure or picking: Too much pressure can slowly weaken the nose over time.

Types Of Nasal Valve Collapse

The nasal airway of your nose is responsible for filtering the air and moistening it so that it’s safe when it reaches your lungs. It has two main sections, the internal nasal valve and the external valve.

• Internal nasal valve collapse: This issue occurs when the inner part of your nose narrows, collapses, or falls inward. 
• External nasal valve collapse: This is when the outer part near your nostrils loses support and collapses while breathing in.

Symptoms Of Nasal Valve Collapse

Here are the collapsed nose cartilage symptoms that you should watch out for:

Nasal Blockage Or Stuffy Nose

Your nose stays blocked and doesn’t improve for a long time. You’re not sick, nor is it too cold for your nose to get blocked. Breathing becomes difficult for you, and you have to breathe in through your mouth instead of your nose.

Trouble Breathing During Exercise

When you exercise, you get short of breath quicker as your nose isn’t able to get enough air easily.

Noisy Or Whistling Breathing

Your breathing gets noisy and makes a whistling sound due to the narrowing of the valve. That’s a clear sign of nasal valve narrowing.

Need To Breathe Through Your Mouth

You often need to breathe through your mouth, as breathing through the nose is quite difficult for you. That happens especially at night.

A Feeling Of Nasal Collapse When Inhaling

You may feel that when you’re breathing in, the sides of your nose are falling inward. That means they’re narrowed, and due to the pressure, they go inward.

Nasal Valve Collapse Diagnosis and Tests

This is how this condition is diagnosed, and different tests are done to check it.

Diagnosis

The healthcare providers ask you about your symptoms, medical history, and the medication you’re on. They’ll give you a Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) survey to fill out.

It asks you several questions about your breathing issues that you need to rate out of 0 to 4, depending on the severity of the issue. This way, the doctors will know how the issue is impacting your daily life.

Tests

There are two nasal valve collapse tests to assess your medical condition:

• Cottle manoeuvre: The Cottle manoeuvre is when the doctor gently pulls your cheek sideways to see if it makes breathing easier.
• Endoscopy: Endoscopy is when a thin tube with a camera is placed inside your nose to check for any blockages or collapse.

Best Treatments Available For The issue

There is one surgical treatment and 2 non-surgical treatments for collapsed nostrils.

Surgical Treatments

Nasal valve collapse surgery: The most commonly used treatment for the narrowed nasal valve is surgery. There are different techniques used in it, and all let you go home on the same day.

• Implants: Implants involve placing a small device inside your nose to support weak cartilage and stop the nasal walls from collapsing.
• Grafting: It adds extra cartilage or bone from places like your ear or rib to help open up the narrow part of your nose.
• Suture suspension: It lifts the nasal valve by gently pulling it upward with stitches connected to nearby tissues under your skin.

Depending on the condition of your nose, you may require some extra processes as well, including the turbinate reduction that decreases the size of your nose’s turbinate. The second one is the septoplasty that corrects a deviated septum.

Non-Surgical Treatments

If you don’t prefer the surgical treatments, then you can consider these nasal valve collapse treatments without surgery:

• Internal nasal dilators: These go inside your nose to help hold it open.
• Breathing strips: Using breathing strips, you can slightly raise your nose to make breathing easier.

Get Expert Help-Contact Asli Tracan Clinic

The nasal valve, which is the narrowest part of your nasal airway, can collapse or narrow due to any injury, structural issues, aging, and also heavy picking of the nose. This narrowing of the valve is called nasal valve collapse.

The symptoms of it include nasal blockage, trouble breathing, noisy breathing, mouth breathing, and a feeling of your nose collapsing when you inhale. 

You can get nasal valve collapse surgery from us at affordable rates with natural-looking results. 

Asli Tracan Clinic is a leading rhinoplasty clinic in Turkey with well-experienced plastic surgeons who open up your narrowed valve safely using safe techniques. Contact us today!

What causes a collapsed nasal valve?

An injury, previous surgery, or just poor cartilage are the most common causes of a collapsed nasal valve.

How to fix a collapsed nasal bridge?

If your nasal bridge has collapsed, it’s usually fixed with grafts or a small implant to support the area.

How do you open the nasal valve?

Breathing strips, nasal dilators, or, if necessary, a straightforward operation can be used to open a blocked nasal valve.