Blocked nose

A blocked nose can be a major annoyance in the day and cause us to have poor sleep quality at night. It can also be a symptom of more serious problems like polyps or even tumours. An ENT surgeon can help exclude serious problems with the aid of an endoscope.

“Nose” (nasopharyngeal cancer), a very common camcer among Chinese

Nasal polyps looking like clusters of peeled grapes

Fortunately, most of the time, it is due to swollen turbinates, swellings at the side of the nose that help warm and humidify the air we breathe in. Turbinates contain a lot of blood vessels which can engorge with allergies or infections. See picture of a swollen turbinate before and after decongestion

Treatment of the underlying allergy will usually help greatly. Besides medication, allergen avoidance will help control the problem. Long term control can now be achieved with sublingual immunotherapy. With failure of medical treatment, radiofrequency of the inferior turbinates can be carried out to surgically shrink the turbinates. This is a simple procedure which can be carried out under local anaesthesia in the clinic.