Blocked nose and snoring. A clinic based alternative to septoplasty.

Laser turbinoplasty in clinic shrinks back the inferior turbinate in a safe way. It’s done under local anaesthetic and the patient returns to work straight away. The nose does swell up inside for a few days but there is no pain or bleeding of any note. Results are usually very good and it is anticipated the effect will be near-permanen.

Often snorers will have a deviated nasal septum, as in this case (white arrow). Septoplasty is a good operation to treat this but it means being in hospital under general anaesthetic, and that is organisationally difficult during Covid-19, plus it means time off work and it’s expensive. The alternative is to make the breathing passage wider by reducing the inferior turbinate around the septal deviation - blue arrow. The net effect either way is to improve the airway.

This patient‘s snoring was markedly improved by turbinoplasty under local anaesthetic in clinic.