Dry Nose Syndrome

There are three pairs of nasal turbinates in each nose. Each pair of turbinate protrudes into the nasal airway like stacked wings of a plane. The passage of the incoming air over the turbinates helps to humidify and warm the air that goes into our lungs. Damage to the function of the turbinates during a turbinate reduction surgery, known as turbinectomy, can result in over-drying of the nose and the air that we breathe. To prevent this most plastic surgeons who perform turbinectomy or the “submucosal resection of the turbinates” try to be conservative with turbinate resection while making sure that there is adequate opening of the nasal airway with turbinectomy.

In cases of sever dry nose syndrome patients are treated with non-surgical supporting means of helping to moisturize the nose with daily nasal saline irrigation and/or moisturizing nasal gel application. Surgical treatments of dry nose syndrome have in large not been very promising.