around with a deviated septum and never know, because the nose is a quiet organ until it stops cooperating. They blame allergies, dry air, the cat, a cold that never quite finished. Meanwhile one nostril carries the whole load, every day, for years. Some folks also hate how their nose looks, a bump, a bend, a tip that points the wrong way, and they wonder whether rhinoplasty could take care of that and the breathing in one shot. Sometimes it can. Sometimes it shouldn’t. So here’s the straight version of what a crooked septum is, what it does, and what actually gets done about it.
