When most people talk about the size of someone's nose, they mean the exterior dimensions, or how large the nose looks on the face. When plastic surgeons talk about nose size, however, there are two types of dimensions. The first, the exterior dimension, is important for aesthetic reasons. The second, known as nasal patency, is important because it impacts how well people are able to breathe through their nose.
Nasal patency is a measure of the openness of the nose. To allow air through to the lungs, a patent nasal passage is needed. Nasal patency has several other important physiological functions, too, such as the sense of smell. If the nose is obstructed, these functions may be blocked. Nasal obstruction, a common condition, may also be described as the sensation of impaired nasal patency.
Nasal obstruction, a common symptom of many conditions affecting the nose, is difficult for doctors to measure or quantify because of the complex inner structure of the nose. However, measuring nasal patency is important for diagnosis and treatment purposes.
Thanks to new technologies, doctors now have several ways to measure the nasal cavity, including rhinomanometry and acoustic rhinometry. These tests of nasal patency can be used to differentiate between different types of nasal obstruction, such as those caused by a stuffy nose due to a cold, and obstruction caused by a deviated septum stemming from a broken nose. After surgery or other treatments to alleviate nasal obstruction, these objective tests are useful for assessing the results.
