Don’t Use Breathe Right Strips: Nasal Stent

At the Modern Nose Clinic, we offer LATERA®. This is one patient's experience.

So anyway. Hey. This is Doug Skarada. I'm not going to mention my patient's name, but I've known him for a really long time, which has been a blessing for me, for sure, but – you know – and over that period of time, he's had a lot of procedures done, and he really has persevered, and we won't recount all that, but the latest thing that he's had done was something we call LATERA®, and that is to strengthen the lateral nasal wall because, for some people, when they inhale through their nose, it collapses in too much, and it really restricts airflow. So for patients who've already had a septoplasty or other procedure done intranasally, sometimes that's why they're still not breathing well.
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Dr. Skarada:

Were you struggling to breathe well through your nose – you know – before the LATERA®?

Michael:

Yes, I was. Especially on the one side because I lay on my left side, and was the right side so when I laid on my side I couldn't breathe through my nose very well, and it kept me awake, and I'd wake up at night, so now I can breathe clearly when I'm laying on my side, and that helped.

Dr. Skarada:

And the thing about it with Michael I think maybe with other people, too - oh I forgot not to say his name, sorry – is that a lot of times people are not complainers. They're kind of like, "Well I did [whatever it was] – a septoplasty" or "I did my allergy stuff, but I'm still struggling. Maybe I just need to put up with it." And the thing about it is sometimes there's something extra you can do, and this is a relatively new thing, so – really just – I've only been doing this for the last six months or so. And for you, did you feel like you were kind of worried you may just have to accept that this was how things were?

Michael:

I was kind of there. Yeah. I figured that was the way it was gonna be. We've done everything we could do, and I thought that's where I was that.

Dr. Skarada:

What was it like the day of the procedure?

Michael:

Well. It actually was – it was fine for me; it actually bothered my wife worse, watching it, than me going through it, and I had really no problem at all, but she goes – she didn't like watching.

Dr. Skarada:

Yeah. You know that we learned something that procedure. We usually like to invite the families in for everything because we don't really feel like we're doing anything that we want to hide. In other words, we want to be totally open and transparent. People like to learn by watching, but I think that like with the LATERA®, sometimes people get a little frightened because you're putting a little prosthesis into the nose, but it is absorbable, and in within 18 months it'll be gone, but you know. Basically, you can tell from his gorgeous picture, you cannot see the prosthesis on his nose. All right. Anything else, Michael or is that pretty much cover it?

Michael:

No that covers it. It's been great. Worked out good!

Dr. Skarada:

Well, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it.

At the Modern Nose Clinic, we do less cutting and more curing. Thank you.