On May 16th the blogosphere was all atwitter about the nasal surgery on Josh Hutcherson, a star of the smash movie, “The Hunger Games.”
At first, bloggers rose up in arms, decrying Josh’s “cosmetic surgery” on an already perfect nose with some exclaiming, “Say it ain’t so, Josh!”
Later, Josh appeared in the streets leaving the office of a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, tweeting still later that he had surgery on a deviated septum.
Quickly jumping into the fray were badly informed bloggers who jumped to conclusions like:
- Josh had been injured in a bar fight
- Fans had mobbed him
(Blog post continues below.)
_______________________________________________________________________
The young soccer player just below shows on the left his bent nose (which also had a bent septum) after two failed nose jobs done elsewhere. His restored shape and septum allowed for normal breathing. (Robert Kotler, M.D. photos.)
________________________________________________________________________
(Continued from above.) But Josh set things straight when he tweeted what was actually afoot.
But what is that, a deviated septum and why was he having surgery on it?
The septum is a thin wall of cartilage and bone dividing the two nostrils. If it is bent, twisted or is otherwise knocked out of a straight up-and-down position, it’s medically known as a deviated septum.
You can be born with a bent septum or suffer a blow to the nose. An uncorrected broken nose can leave a septum in an “S” shape that really messes up breathing.
Why? A bent septum can block the breathing channels that pass air to the lungs. It’s very noticeable at night when the sufferer snores and perhaps wakes up gasping for breath.
Medically speaking, it’s not a good thing. A deviated septum and the snoring don’t allow enough oxygen for healthy functioning of the body’s organs.
Plastic surgeons who specialize in head and neck surgery are often masters of all things nasal and can quickly detect deviated septums as well as straighten them.
Depending on how much the septum is bent, some cases can be repaired using stiches only inside the nose. Other deviations require tiny amounts of the septum to be surgically removed, with the two ends sutured together.
Some have the surgery under local anesthesia while others are put gently to sleep under general anesthesia.
Josh appears in the photo above wearing what some call a “moustache bandage” to absorb any nasal bleeding.
Most patients go home the same day, many with packing inside the nose to hold everything in place and to deliver healing medications. Most complain about packing and nasal stuffiness, but if the nasal surgeon has used a Kotler Nasal Airway, recovery is more pleasant.
(Read more about the Kotler Nasal Airway.)
Dr. Kotler: Ranked by MapQuest as #5 out of 500 medical & health professionals in Beverly Hills’ “Golden Triangle”