Most frequently broken bone? It’s as plain as your face! Actually, it’s ONyour face. Having the body’s thinnest bones and being very prominent, it’s the broken nose.
A sharp nasal blow – in accidents, sports or out-of-control disagreements – is hard to ignore because your eyes water so that everything looks blurry. And broken nose pain is hard to ignore.
You would also notice swelling, tenderness, bruising around the eyes and probably some nose bleeding. Changes in shape or your breathing may require an E.R. exam or a nose specialist.
(Look at some nose job before & after pictures.)
One type of broken nose result requires a really close look. If your septum(the bone and cartilage divider between the two nostrils) is injured, a pool of blood may have collected under the skin covering the septum and exert pressure on other internal nose tissues.
Left alone, that blood pool (medically, a septal hematoma) can dissolve nose cartilage and even lead to a partial nose collapse.
Signs to look for? The broken nose person has a serious breathing block, with hardly any air passing through the nose. But the treatment of septal hematoma by a specialist is easily done.
What type of doctor to see for a broken nose? Besides an E.R. doctor, facial surgery specialists, cosmetic plastic surgeons, and other nose surgeons have years of experience.
(Look at some permanent, non-surgical rhinoplasty before & after pictures.)
After about 10 days, a broken nose starts healing in the broken position. That makes it hard for a surgeon to put the broken nose elements back in the proper position. Plus, swelling usually sets in within 24 hours and is at its largest with two to three days. So, the nose may need to be seen again to understand the broken nose state.
What happens if the patient lets 10 days go by and the nose heals?
That nose will probably be crooked on the outside and have a breathing problem on the inside. Plus, it will be about two months before a nose surgeon can work with that nose due to the fragile, thin bone fragments.
