Kids are very active these days. Extra curricular signup sheets for activities such as softball, soccer, and basketball tend to fill up fast. Of course, parents love this because it means children are participating in something that is keeping their little ones both active and healthy. However, there are also times when these activities make parents nervous. No matter how resilient kids may seem, the truth is, they get very competitive while playing and end up getting dirty, or worse, hurt. An accidental blow to the face with a stray baseball or elbow is enough to result in a black eye or a structure within the nose being knocked out of place. This is one way a person can end up with a deviated septum.
When you have a deviated septum, a thin wall between your nostrils—the nasal septum—becomes displaced. If it goes too much to one side, the deviation makes many people have one nasal passage that is smaller than the other. As you can imagine, this makes it difficult to breathe through your nose and easy for mucous to buildup, possibly leading to a sinus infection. In fact, people with this condition tend to experience chronic sinusitis and nosebleeds more than those with a normal septum. Another thing to note is that injury to the head or face is not the only way to end up with a deviated septum—you can also be born with one.
Deviated septums are nothing to be too worried about, as they’re more of a nuisance than life-threatening. If someone you know has one, you should consider bringing them in to get looked at. Their quality of life will be better once they can start breathing normally again and not have to deal with constant sinus issues. If the person in question is a young athlete as described above, we are sure they will want to get back to doing what they love as fast as possible. Help them breathe easy; book an appointment with the experts at CT Sinus Center. We’ll have them fixed up and back in the game in no time!
