What do you do with a swollen nasal mucosa?
Depending on the cause of the swollen nasal mucosa, there are various treatment options available. If an allergy is the cause of the symptoms, the affected persons should try to avoid the allergen as much as possible. Unfortunately, this is often very difficult, because if one has a pollen allergy, for example, one does not want to spend the whole year in closed rooms.Differently it looks with animal hair, here one must separate under circumstances, depending upon severity of the complaints, even from the animal.
There is the possibility of hyposensitization against certain allergens. Here it is simply said that the immune system is exposed to the allergen in increasing concentration until the immune system ignores the allergen as it occurs in nature and there is no excessive immune reaction on renewed contact. This procedure has a different chance of success depending on the allergen.
This is not the only possibility of medicine to treat allergies, there are also different drugs available. If the difficult nasal breathing is due to an allergy, one can take both antihistamines and small doses of cortisone. However, this should never be done without consulting a doctor, as these drugs can also have various side effects, especially if they are taken in too high doses.
There are also decongestant nasal sprays such as Otriven®, which contains xylometazoline as the active ingredient. It is extremely important that this should not be overdosed in infants and small children, as this can otherwise be life-threatening due to reduced breathing, which can lead to coma. It is therefore important to always follow the dosage approved for children and to consult a doctor or pharmacist if necessary.
In adults, the complications are not as drastic, but here too, a decongestant nasal spray should not be used for longer than 7 days, otherwise addictions may occur. If an anatomical cause is the reason for obstructed nasal breathing, for example, nasal conchae that are too large, they can be treated with the help of a laser. If a crooked nasal septum is the reason, it can be treated in an operation.
