The nose sits right in the middle of the face, protruding out. Due to such position, whenever an accident happens, people most often break their noses. You may have hit your nose, but you may not have gone to see a doctor because your nose may seem okay.
However, in a few days, you will see deformities in your nose, and you would have to visit a plastic surgery clinic here in Denver to have it fixed.
Nose-Breaking Activities
Your daily life contains many activities that carry the risk of breaking your nose. Contact sports or simple play wrestling can easily lead to injury. Actual physical fights more so. You may also slip and fall flat on your face, resulting in a broken nose. Vehicular accidents can also cause broken noses, along with other injuries.
Know the Mild from the Severe
You may have hit your nose. You can know if you have a mild fracture if you have a brief nosebleed and some swelling on your nose. On the other hand, you can know if you have a severe fracture when your nose has obviously shifted from its place; your nose bleeds profusely; or you have difficulty breathing in one or both nostrils.
Remedy the Pain Briefly
After the accident, at home, you can do several remedies for your broken nose. Apply ice packs or cold compress immediately after injury to reduce the swelling; keep it on for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. For the pain, you can ingest pain relievers. For the bleeding, keep your head up. After these remedies, you have to see a doctor.
See a Doctor
In severe cases of a broken nose, you know you immediately have to find medical assistance. Even in mild cases, however, you also have to see a doctor. A mild fracture can still lead to a deformed nose after the healing process.
As such, any hit to the nose leading to any amount of bleeding, you can go to the doctor for treatment.
Go to a Plastic Surgeon Immediately
For severe cases, instead of a general physician, you can go directly to a plastic surgery clinic in Denver. A plastic surgeon specializes in nasal fractures; he or she can realign your nose using rhinoplasty, or a nose job as the procedure is commonly known.
Breathing difficulties may be caused by a broken nasal septum. The nasal septum is the bone and cartilage that separates your two nostrils. This may be deformed in a nasal fracture. In such a case, you need septorhinoplasty instead where the surgeon reconstructs your nasal septum.
Go to a Plastic Surgeon Regardless of Time
Now, some may have stayed at home after being hit in the nose, thinking everything will be okay, which is especially true in mild fractures. Once your nose heals, however, deformities may become more visible and permanent.
When you skipped immediate treatment for your broken nose, regardless of when you broke your nose, you can still undergo rhinoplasty or septorhinoplasty to fix the deformities.
Protect But Treat Immediately in an Accident
You have a vulnerable part of your body in your nose. Protect it as much as you can by wearing a seatbelt when driving, driving an airbag-enabled car, or using a protective helmet. When you do hit your nose, and it breaks again or for the first time, you now know what to do.