Can't breathe through nose (Page 1)

I assume you've gotten a second opinion? Probably third and fourth right? There's gotta be someone out there who will help you. You may have to travel a ways to find someone. Good luck...

hey, i believe i have the same problem.
I'm also a pilot and fly everyday and have been told its allergy and sinus blckages, but have never experienced any sort of of facial pain or sinus pain in my life.
Just the nasal passages seem just too small. I find if i pull the outer edges of my nose out it clears up. If you find a remedy let me know, I'd love to hear what other people out there think too.
Cheers,
Shannon

thats crazy like sleepdeprived I had my deviated septum in my right nostril "fixed" but its feels like you said breathing through a small straw but when I pull slightly on the edge it opens up wide... night and day ...

Look up Buteyko

Just to emphasize on my condition a little more, I'm a perfectly healthy 32 years old.
I swim twice a week, eat healthy foods and practice yoga.
I rarely get sick, and fly everyday as part of my job.

I've had a blocked nose now for as long as I can remember and since I was a child I've always had to breath throgh my mouth.
I had a deviated septum straightened up as well, which was no help and tried all the nasal sprays recommended and used the entire bottles as instructed, which did very little as well.
I find both my nasal passages are quite hard to breath through and always have to have my mouth open.
When sleeping I have to have my mouth wide open so I can breath and always wake up with severe bad breath and mucus all over my lips and teeth.
When running or playing sport I have to breath all the time through my mouth and it gets extremely dry and uncomfortable.

I've gone back to see my GP about it and I think he was a little adament about it as he kept saying he'll book the specialist again but I never here anything.
I think he knew that if I was diagnosed with a chronic nasal cogestion problem then It would jepardize my job as a commercial pilot.
I have to get a medical check every year and when they check the nose they just ask "you got a blocked nose?" and I just agree and thats the end of it.

Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated, or if you know if anyone else else who seems to have this problem then write a post and we'll see what we can find out.
Cheers and stay Healthy
Shannon

I have the same problem. I'm 22 as well. I'm healthy, I'm highly active, and I'm a singer. Not being able to sing well and hit high notes because of nasal breathing issues is terribly frustrating. Since my craft demands me being able to breathe through my nose I have tried virtually everything. It is hard work to overcome the issues but there are a few things I have tried with moderate success. Breathing through the nose is a critical part of being healthy. Our nose acts as a filter for all the air we breathe. Getting it clear in the first place is critical for keeping it clear. Breathing through your mouth will cause allergens, bacteria, and everything under the sun to enter into your nasal cavity and sinuses and cause congestion. The first thing I would suggest is a neti-pot. You must use it daily, and be consistent. Try using nasal cones at night to help open your nasal passage ways. Do not use nasal sprays!! They will have the complete opposite effect. Your nose will close off even worse than before you use them. The chemicals might clear out mucus but they inflame the nasal cavity, so a couple hours later you're stuck in the same boat. Lastly, exercise exercise exercise and do it outside!! Run or bike and breathe exclusively through your nose even though it seems impossible. Not only are you exercising your heart and your muscles, you're also exercising the nervous system in your nose. Vigorous physical activity activates your sympathetic nervous system, which constricts the blood vessels that supply your nasal turbinates(creates mucous and prevents build up, cleans/clears nasal cavity).

These ideas have helped me, but I am still open to anything. If anyone out there has any good info on this, please let us know!!

Hi Im a healthy 30 yrs old mum of 2 and for as long as i can remember i have had to breathe thru my mouth when lying down. I have driven my husband out of the bedroom from my snoring and i wake up with a sore throat every day. i remember as a kid i used to try and practice going to sleep with my mouth closed but it is literally impossible! i still try but i can only last about 30 seconds, i just cannot get enough air! i wonder if there is and anotomical defect in my nose? my mum is the same, can a visit to ENT check my passages or do u need surgery just to check inside?? It is so out of hand now i wake the whole house up and never get a good nite rest...HELP!
ChelleBelle

Hi,I am a 29 yr old male.for a few years now I have had the same problem and it's getting worse. I went to a specialist and he did a broncosopy on me to see if there was a blockage.He said,because I mouth breathe that there is excess mucous in my sinuses.My mouth an throat dry up because I mouth breathe.
By breathing through my nose, it moistens the incoming air, which reduces the mucous and does not cause the mouth and airway to dry up.
He said not to use sinus sprays because they only have a short term effect and then make things worse.
He suggested before we go down a surgery route to try the following technique, Get a bandage called a "micropore" bandage. It's like tape, sticky on one side, but it has tiny tiny holes in it. tear enough off to cover your mouth and place the sticky side on you closed lips before you go to sleep. You can do this duriny the day to but people might think your strange. This is supposed to force you to nose breathe. The tape is not sticky enough to stop you opening your mouth if you really need to and you think you are going to suffocate. I have tried it now for about 2 weeks and my girlfriend says I am nose breathing at night time, but I still feel my nose is blocked during the day. There is also products out there to wash out your sinuses but I have found them of little benifit. Google "sinus rince" by Neilmed.
Hope this helps some of you. any other suggestions would be more than welcome.
thanks
John

In response to the first poster: sleepdeprived247, it sounds like only obstructions were removed, when it seems rather clear that you have a structurally narrow nasal pathway: which can be alleviated. Removing polyps and straightening your septum may have provided some relieve, but polyps can grow back, and in general their removal changes the fluid dynamics of pathways more than increasing airflow. Both are important. Once the stint was removed, you lost the improvement. Hence, the surgery neither improved the low momentum diffusion (the turbulent air, that makes airflow ineffective), nor did it increase airflow. So, you are also suffering from a poor structural design: your nasal passages collapse bc of a sort-of Coanda effect, where the moving air draws your outer wall inward. If it's bad enough, it may even be visible (breathe in through your nose, and see if your nose visibly collapses to some degree). You probably should have had your turbinates reduced as well. It should be fairly easy to see which set a reduction of would provide the most relief; typically the inferior. This, if done properly, should increase airflow and improvement the momentum diffusion. If it only increases airflow, then you'll want to look into a permanent stint.

I'm a healthy 26 year old Male and it wasn't until recently that I found out that most people can breathe through their noses while they sleep.

This was a totally foreign concept to me, as I've always felt that I can't get nearly enough air through the single nostril that is only SOMETIMES open at night.

Most of the time, one of my nostrils are completely blocked and often the other is only somewhat open.

I've tried many of the same things mentioned in this thread and I don't have a deviated septum.

I wish someone would figure out why this happens and what the best way to treat it is.. there are obviously a lot of us out here with this ailment!

I am 31, same problem my whole life, I have have 2 nose surgeries and feels even worse than it did ( deviated septum). The doc says it looks fine in there but I look up there and the nostril holes are really tiny up inside. Mucus gets trapped and I have to blow my nose so hard to get the mucus out. The mouth breathing is getting annoying,bad breath, sore throats . I'm out of options, tried everything, thinking about getting out the drill myself. HELP!!!!

I have a 12-year-old daughter, who has a deviated septum. We think it happened when she had a bad fall right on her nose when she was about 4 years old. She was always a healthy kid before the fall. She is a competitive roller skater, and has competed at the National level for 5 years. Consequently, she gets plenty of exercise, and from April through October she is a pretty healthy kid. That being said, every year around November she starts getting sick, and it quickly turns into a sinus infection. From November through March she catches one cold after another, and misses lots of school. This last time, she was off school for 5 days, and this is a kid who loves school. She just finished up 5 days of Azithromycin - 250 MG, and she is still miserable. She also had terrible side effects from the medicine, so we will probably never use that one again. To top it off, she has to sleep with her mouth open, so every morning she wakes up with a sore throat. I think this is one of the reasons that she hates going to sleep at night. It's like she wakes up feeling rotten, and slowly starts to feel better, and then by 9:00 P.M. she is worried about not being able to breath at night. A specialist had suggested surgery for her deviated septum, but he wants to wait until she is older. He thinks that if we do it now, we will have to do the surgery again when she is in her 20���¢�¯�¿à �½�¯�¿�½s. My daughter told me last year, that if she has to live like this, she would rather have the surgery done twice. This coming from the mouth of an 11 year old is heartbreaking for me. I honestly don't know what to do for her. Any suggestions from people who understand what she is going through are greatly appreciated.

I might have an answer for some of you. I am a healthy 45 yo male, played semi-pro football until I was 44 and always had the problem of breathing through my mouth. I had sleep apnea and lived on nose sprays. My nose has been broken several times due to football and many years of kick boxing so my nasal passages were almost completely blocked. I had my nose reconstructed rhinoplasty a septoplasty and basically have my nose reconstructed to open the airway.

After that i can breath through my nose wonderfully as there is no more obstruction yet my sinuses are always very stuffy so I still do not get nearly enough air although it was a huge improvement. here is the weird part, i have been having problem with a tooth for about 12 years. i had a root canal done about 20 years ago, About 8 years later I had a lot of pain. I have had it worked on a multitude of times, has a cap, antibiotics to ease swelling and pain etc. I finally had enough a week ago and had it extracted. There was a cyst on the end of it and I have no idea how long it had been there. Anyway, as soon as the tooth was pulled I could breath!!!! It is almost too much air as i am not used to it and it is a little uncomfortable as it it like i am getting blasted with air. I love it!!! I am sleeping great. It has only been a week but it has stayed perfect.

I do breath better out of the side the lower molar was extracted but it was a huge improvement to the other side as well. So if any of you are having tooth problems, it my be a contributor. I have been to several specialists and no one ever mentioned a tooth could do that. I can't wait to discuss this with my Dr. I cannot tell you how great it it after not breathing through m nose for most of my life. I am now curious if certain teeth effect the sinuses even if there are no problems with the tooth.

An endosontist did tell me the way the nerves run you can have pain in your lower jaw yet it is an upper tooth that is the culprit.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Hi there,

Your post is really encouraging news to me as I have had problems with breathing on and off most of my life. I realise that when I can't get enough air into my lungs pretty much my whole quality of life suffers - I get frustrated, angry, short-tempered, frustrated, can't think clearly, and I have just found that when I hold my nostrils wide open - i suddenly can breathe properly. My whole chest relaxes and I feel relaxed myself - I don't feel like I'm "fighting for air". This is a pretty amazing feeling! I really hope that discovering this may lead to some real improvements in my life. I am going to speak to a specialist about this. Many thanks.

Im a 23 year old male, i also have difficulty breathing through the nose, well its actually just one of the nasal passages which is blocked. As i child my breathing was fine, but then i took up playing rugby at school and i assume you can guess the rest. I remember getting a lot of big knocks on my nose and also remember an extended period where my nose was very painful, it was probably broken, but iv always been one to get on with life and ignore pain. I recently went to the doctor and he said i had 'a deviated septum in an S shape'. Your probably saying its my own fault (well thats what my mum says) and youd be right, fortunatly iv stopped playing rugby now. Iv been refered to the hospital for further consultation. Im hoping that if i get my septum straightened up like normal then i should be able to breath properly. A lot of you are saying this operation didn't work for you, but as i said as i child i could breath perfectly, so im assuming my nasal passages are large enough i just need them clearing

I'm a 34 year old male, nose breathing problem for 20 years and heavy mouth breather causing Halitosis. Seen serveral ENT with no solution. diagnosis no pollups, use all kinds or steroids sprays, neti pot helps very little. seems like my air passage is too narrow. need to widen then i came across this website. leading ENT surgeon in Canada radical new procedure that uses a balloon to alleviate your sinus but what is does is widens the air passage!! I have email Dr. Oakley to find out more info. Recently I have been missing sleep because or paranoia of not getting enough air so I force my self to watch tv until 6am tiring myself to sleep.. not good.

hi, I am a 45 year old women and cannot nose breathe. I was born 3 months early and suffered from asthma my whole life. My breathing has become worse in recent weeks, my hubby says it sounds like I am breathing through a straw! (no snoring) I am driving him crazy. I mouth breathe all the time, sometimes choke on food while i am eating. Doesn''t matter how I lie down- back, side, tummy...still the same thing every night. What can I do?????

i''m 19 years old and i have difficulty breathing through my nose too, i have had septoplasty, i can still nose breath but it''s really hard and i feel like my airways are so narrow that when the mucous comes out it got trapped there and my nose got blocked or goes straight to my throat, this makes me have sore throat and as i''m a singer, it''s so frustrating that every time i sing, my voice can''t go to the nasal to resonate, it got pushed back to my throat making a heavy and tired sound. When i went to the doctor, he said my nose was clear, nothing is as an obstacle and told me that i was just paranoid, lol, can people be paranoid about such a thing ? i said no, even my friends could recognize the difference between me singing with a blocked nose and with a clear one. He said that my inferior turbinates were a little swollen but then informed me that getting the turbinates reduced wouldn''t help, he said he would still do it if i wanted to. i don''t know if i should do it or not, helppppppppppppppppppppp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, i''m so depressed
oh, i feel relieved to know there are many ppl who have the same problem with me, this lets me know that i''m totally not paranoid

HEY! you guys should try this, i noticed that some peoples airways were too small and my mom gave me these one day and it worked! you should definately give them a try. They are called "breath right" and are sort of like a BAND-AID for your nose to help open it up! hope this helps.

they do help at first but it seems to be short lived they seem to lose whatever gift they give at first towards the middle to time i wake up .. and they get to be expensive after a while ... but you will see a difference like kevin said maybe for others it will make a big difference.. good luck

They're called "Breathe right nasal strips". They helped me before I had my surgery. Now, after the surgery my problem's still not fixed and now the breathe right strips don't help either

I feel exactly the same. To me it feels like a constant cold. I just can not breathe through my nose. Ive been on antibiotics and have been using nasal sprays for about 2 months, but still nothing. The only thing that helped was when I accidently squirted loads of spray up my nose, I could actually breathe then! Ive had enough. I feel like im choking on phlegm, but then again there isnt any more there than the average person has. Just dont know what to do anymore.

my daughter ihe cs 4 years old and has the same problem sant breath through her nose and always coughs but isnt sick. the problem is her adnoids need to be removed and when they are removed doctor said she will be able to breath out of her nose so that sounds like all of your guys problems

my daughter ihe cs 4 years old and has the same problem sant breath through her nose and always coughs but isnt sick. the problem is her adnoids need to be removed and when they are removed doctor said she will be able to breath out of her nose so that sounds like all of your guys problems

my daughter is 4 years old and has the same problem cant breath through her nose and always coughs but isnt sick. the problem is her adnoids need to be removed and when they are removed doctor said she will be able to breath out of her nose so that sounds like all of your guys problems

Do you still suffer from breathing problems. I have this book called "Sinus Survival" by Ivker that seems to be a good book for people with chronic congestion sinusitis.

sleepdeprived247 : Please write me outside this. I would like to talk to you.. as everything you have said, directly relates to me.

I'm a 20 healthy, 20 year-old male and I have been having many of the same problems for my entire life. When I was 15 I had an operation to fix my deviated septum, but that wasn't exactly a success. What forced me to get the septum "corrected" was frequent (and I mean at least once a month) sinus infections that would just knock me out for at least a week and a half at a time. I just thought the surgery would help, but since then I still get sinus infections (although not as frequent) and I can barely breathe through my nose. The doctor said he removed polyps and straightened my septum during that surgery, but my nose still doesn't seem straight. On top of that, on the side of my nose that is more open because of the slant in my septum, the skin collapses when I breathe, making it nearly impossible to get any air in that side. Thus, it's actually easier for my to breathe into the side that has the narrowest passage-way! I can't even describe to people how much it affects my life. It makes me miserable. I never feel like talking because it's simply difficult to breathe. It takes me hours to get to sleep at night. I run a few miles a day, and the whole time I'm breathing through my mouth. Please, if anyone has any useful information, I would really appreciate it!

I have lived with all the same problems you have for 37 years now. The main thing you have to do is to figure out how to sleep well. Nasal cones/stents can help dramatically. There are several different types available on the internet. Try several to see which one works best for you.