Just had my turbinates reduction surgery and it was the best decision ever.

I see posts about turbinates reduction here from time to time and wanted to share my experience. I just had it done yesterday at 3PM and am writing this post at 5:50 AM simply because I woke up and can’t believe how good my sleep was. So my story is that I had a rhinoplasty done a year ago, prior to which my breathing was 100% fine. The doctor has showed me what degree of my nose reduction he would be 100% calm of in terms of my breathing not being affected yet I chose to make it a tiny bit more smaller with a 30% chance that my breathing could be affected (I know I know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes). So for the last year my breathing has been shit. My nose was always clogged, sleeping was terrible since I couldn’t breath throgh my nose and my mouth was always dry and painful. I started snoring from time to time which was never a case before the surgery. Basically, I had to breathe through my mouth at nights and mostly throughout the days for a whole year.

Now, about the reduction itself. I’ve done it under general anaesthesia in Kaunas, Lithuania, by dr. Marius Kašėta and it cost me only 900 EUR with everything (surgery, anaesthesia, hospital stay, hospital food, bring-home medicine). The dr. did the reduction with that radiofrequency device, he did not cut my turbinates as it was popular back in the days. Dr. said the surgery took only 15 minutes, but of course with general anaesthesia it took some time to wake up lol.

I got home the same day, although could’ve stayed there for free for the night, just because I have work today. But my oh my. When I tell you it was sooo worth it.. Right after the surgery there were stents and some nose tampons in my nose and I still could feel that I already could breathe through my nose lol. 1-2 hours after I woke up he removed everything from my nose, there was some bleeding for a few hours but I could breathe 100% perfectly fine right after. I can’t count how many times I almost cried today and tonight just because I got my breathing back and woke up from my yesterday’s naps and tonight’s sleep without a crazy dry mouth and rested.. It’s been a blessing for me and I am now so grateful for my nose and wouldn’t touch it with any rhinoplasty ever again :D

Now I still need to learn to breathe through my nose since even if I can do that perfectly fine, my brain is telling me to breathe from my mouth after a whole year of this, but I think several weeks will pass and I’ll be ok.

Generally speaking, it was an easiest surgery ever with no downtime and I am going back to work this morning. Dr. gave me some sea water spray to rinse my nose 3x per day + some nose drops to keep my nose from drying for a week , but I feel fine even without it.

I don’t know if this surgery is that good for everyone but this is my story after doing a stupid decision with rhinoplasty and having my turbinates practically block my nasal passages all the way. I am super happy and can’t recommend it more. One cautious thing to keep in mind: beware of doctors who want to cut your turbinates since cutting them off sometimes may lead to empty nose syndrome and it is the worst thing to live with. Go with radiofrequency reduction only and the risk of ENS is almost non-existent that way.

Hope this post helps somebody who is on the fence about this surgery!