Treating Nasal Obstruction and Congestion During Allergy Season
Allergy season often leaves you with that throbbing sinus pain and blocked nasal passages. When your nose is stuffed up, it's confusing to know the best way to treat it.
We've put together this guide with everything you need to make the best decisions about your nasal obstruction.
We discuss:
Contributors to This Article
Can't Breathe Due to Allergies, Crying or Congestion?
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The function of the nose is to warm, humidify, and filter the air. This way, when you breathe air in, it’s not too harsh by the time it gets to your lungs.
The nose is the first line of defense to prepare air for our lungs. When your nose gets irritated from pollutants, or encounters pollen, the nasal passages can become obstructed or congested.
Here are several home remedies that can help you. However, if you have a fixed nasal obstruction, these remedies most likely will not give you the relief you need.
Stop Blowing Your Nose So Much
We all know how good it feels to blow your nose when you have a runny and stuffy nose.
Every time you breathe, the sidewall of the nose is flapping against the septum. At first, this feels good. Then however, the tissue in your nose gets irritated from the repetitive trauma of blowing your nose. Then it produces more mucus to protect the surface. As a result, you want to blow your nose more.
Unfortunately, people get into this cycle, and a lot of times, people will end up getting nosebleeds. The best thing to do is to be gentle and minimize how much you blow your nose.
You’re blowing your nose too much if you are going through a box of Kleenex and blowing your nose all day.
- The main idea: Minimize how much you blow your nose. Excessive force causes trauma to the nasal lining, which leads to more swelling and mucus production.
Avoidance and Environmental Control
If you’re allergic to cats, stay away from cats! Sometimes avoidance is the best way to avoid allergic reactions.
For example, if you have severe allergies during the spring, check your area’s pollen counts during the pollen season. Pollen counts will tell you how harmful the allergens will be where you live, and it might be best to spend less time outside.
Get an air filter that filters out all of those irritants in the dust in your home. Focusing on environmental control can sometimes decrease the inflammation in the nose because you’re not breathing in all those particles.
- The main idea: You can manage your allergic reactions and inflammation effectively by avoiding allergens and controlling your environment.
Decongestants
The main ingredient in most decongestants is pseudoephedrine, which can help dry up the secretions.
When your turbinates swell from allergies or irritants, it's a sign of inflammation. Decongestants help you by decreasing swelling and blockages; for example, Sudafed and Afrin shrink those blood vessels.
Decongestants provide quick and immediate relief. However, these medications should not be taken for an extended period because your nose can get addicted to them. In addition, decongestants can be associated with high blood pressure because it’s constricting those blood vessels.
- The main idea: Medications like Sudafed or Afrin shrink blood vessels to quickly reduce swelling and nasal blockages. They need to be used with caution due to side effects.
Steroid Sprays
Steroid sprays are another way to decrease the swelling and inflammation in your nose. Steroid sprays target inflammation and will help with allergic rhinitis. There are a lot of steroid sprays like Flonase, Nasonex, and Nasacort. The good thing about the sprays is they don’t go into your bloodstream as much as the pills do, so they don’t have as many side effects as decongestants.
- The main idea: To cut down on allergic rhinitis swelling and inflammation, you can use a steroid nasal spray. Because it's a localized treatment, you can get relief with fewer side effects than decongestants.
Saline Irrigation
A saline clean is just washing out the nose with a saline solution. Saline works because it washes out all those particles in your nose that cause inflammation. Saline does not have the side effects of steroid sprays and decongestants because it is just salt water.
- The main idea: This is the quickest way to unblock your nose. Irrigation can physically wash away the allergens and mucus, including the tear and mucus build up after crying. It provides immediate relief and is side effect free.
Masks for Allergies
You already know about filtration thanks to the pandemic. Different dust masks can help protect your nose by filtering out various particles. Because allergen particles are much bigger than coronavirus particles, you'll find masks are highly effective at keeping allergens out of your nose.
- The main idea: Masks are an effective and simple tool you can use to protect your nose by filtering out allergens.
Fluctuating Nasal Obstructions: When the Congestion isn't Constant
Fluctuating obstructions come and go. This happens because one side of your nose swells up and then goes down, followed by the other side doing the same thing. This is a constant cycle throughout the day, and most of the time, you won't even notice it.
But sometimes people do notice the swelling, especially when gravity is involved.
If you lay on one side, you might get congested on that side and breathe better through the upper side. Then the other side gets blocked with nasal congestion when you flip over. You have probably had this experience while having a cold.
Rhinitis: When You Can't Breathe Out of Your Nose
Allergies are one of the most common causes of rhinitis which irritates your nose and produces mucus. The tissue swells up to try to get rid of the irritant. Then you get mucus, runny nose and congestion.
There’s also non-allergic rhinitis, but it’s just from irritants. For example, if it's windy where you are, dust can cause rhinitis. Also wildfires with smoke particles can irritate the nasal tissues. The tissues can swell up, but then go back down.
Turbinates: Why does my nose get stuffy when I cry?
Your nose contains structures called turbinates, which are rich in blood vessels. These vessels can become engorged and swollen due to allergies, illness, or even when you cry. This swelling blocks your airway and usually resolves on its own. For quick relief saline irrigation can be used, as well as decongestants and steroid sprays to unblocked your nose.
The Role of a Physician or ENT Specialist in Treating Nasal Congestion
Any physician or specialist should provide patient-centered care,
said Mark Littlejohn, Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist at CHRISTUS Health.
When a specialist sees a patient in the office, the provider or specialist should find the patient's main problem, and chief complaint, and listen to them. Then the specialist tailors a treatment plan that’s best for their needs.
said Littlejohn.
One of the beauties of an ENT specialist is that we treat things both medically and when necessary, surgically. But certainly, we’re going to start medically and see if that problem can be solved with medicine. But yet, we have the beauty of being able to manage it surgically if we need to.
Littlejohn said.
3 Types of Fixed Nasal Obstructions
Deviated Septum
A deviated septum is a common condition we see where the cartilage and bone dividing your nostrils are crooked or off-center. This can make it difficult to breathe through your nose, as one or both nostrils may be blocked.
Most people with a deviated septum are often born with a crooked septum. However, in rare cases, it can be from a sports injury, accident, or fall.
Nasal Polyps
These are growths that can form on your sinuses or nose lining. For example, allergies, chronic sinus infections, or asthma can cause Nasal Polyps. Nasal polyps can block your nasal passages or make them narrower.
Nasal polyps are caused by chronic inflammation or allergies. The polyps are inflammatory tissue. Even though they have a common name with colon polyps, they’re not pre-cancerous. Instead, they’re just blobs of gelatinous inflammatory tissue blocking your nose.
Scar Tissue
Another fixed obstruction is scar tissue or synechia. If you’ve had nasal surgery in the past, used a lot of nasal sprays, or blown your nose too much, you could have scar tissue. Sometimes you can get bands of scar tissue that fuse the side of your nose to the septum and make it a lot harder to breathe again.
Surgeries for Fixed Nasal Obstructions: When the Congestion is Constant
You might try every decongestant and saline rinse out there, but with a fixed obstruction, you'll find they don't help. That's because the blockage is a physical issue, and only a surgical treatment can truly clear it for you.
What is septoplasty?
A septoplasty is a surgical procedure that corrects a deviated septum. The septum is the bone and cartilage that divides your nose into two passages. A deviated septum occurs when the septum is displaced to one side. This can cause difficulty breathing and other problems.
A surgeon straightens up the cartilage, which gives a patient a lot more space to breathe on both sides of their nose.
What is a nasal valve collapse?
The nasal valves are the openings on either side of the nose that allow air to pass through. When these valves collapse, it can cause difficulty breathing. This is often caused by a deviated septum or another structural issue.
A surgeon will often use cartilage from another part of the body to reinforce the nasal valves. This helps to keep them open and improve airflow.
What is turbinate reduction?
Turbinate reduction is a common surgery used to reduce the size of the turbinates. We need turbinates because they dilate and warm and humidify the air. Sometimes, however, we don’t want them to enlarge so much that we can’t breathe, so what we do is shrink them down. We cauterize some blood vessels to still function, but they don’t swell up so much that they block the nasal passage.
Can an ENT help change the appearance of my nose?
Many Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists can help change the appearance of your nose. For example, your nose might be slightly crooked if you have a deviated septum. When it is straightened, it can sometimes change the appearance of your nose. Most often, surgery gives a more aesthetic appearance.
Find a Doctor Near You
If you have a nose obstruction, it is essential to talk to your doctor about the best treatment options. Surgery may be necessary in some cases, but nonsurgical options can also help.
The goal is to improve your breathing and make you more comfortable.
Find an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist Near You
Find an ENT specialist who can work with you to address persistent nasal blockages and provide relief.