Billie Langford has hated her nose all her life.
“It was just one of those things you just live with,” she says, explaining that a rhinoplasty just never rose to the top of her priority list.
But then she started seeing a new dentist who pointed out that the biggest problem wasn’t the appearance of her nose, but its function.
“I filled out a new patient survey and one of the questions was something like, ‘How do you sleep?’ Do you wake up refreshed?’ says Langford. She recognized that she usually woke up tired, so the dentist sent her home with an oxygen sensor to sleep for two nights. Dentist Jill Hansen wasn’t surprised to see her oxygen levels drop repeatedly overnight.
“He said, ‘We saw your diaphragm when we were working on you,'” Langford recalled.
In fact, Langford had a severe diaphragmatic deviation from birth. He couldn’t breathe through one nostril and would “whistle” when he slept. But she had no idea her medical insurance would consider the repair a medical necessity.
At the urging of her dentist, she went to see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist, who referred her to an ENT specialist and facial plastic surgeon at MultiCare ENT & Med Aesthetics – Gig Harbor. During the initial meeting, they talked about her breathing problems.
“He said to me, ‘It doesn’t help that half your nose is closed,'” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh my God! My nose is broken!” But he quickly reassured her.
“He said, ‘It’s okay. I’ll fix it.”
As a board-certified otolaryngologist (ENT) and facial plastic surgeon, her surgeon was qualified to treat both functional and cosmetic issues. He explains that deviated septums can be present at birth, as Langford’s was, or the result of trauma, including sports injuries. Anyone who has difficulty breathing through their nose, particularly on one side, should see a doctor to determine if it’s a deviated septum, nasal sidewall or valve collapse, or another structural problem.
“If it’s a breathing problem, insurance usually covers it,” he says. In Langford’s case, the repair of the deviated septum was clearly medically necessary. But while she was under anesthesia and he was already working on the nose, they could do cosmetic work that Langford would pay for out of his own pocket. It made sense to combine the surgeries both medically and financially.
“I didn’t want to do the surgery and not get what I wanted in the end,” she says.
“He definitely takes an artist’s approach,” she says of her surgeon. “He was so relaxed and I left there knowing I was in good hands.”
The recovery was not as painful as he had feared.
“I love my nose so much that it was just a blur,” says Langford. “One of my favorite parts was when the doctor took the cast off and he had such pride on his face.”
“It’s night and day,” she says of life after rhinoplasty. “I can breathe! I sleep more soundly, wake up feeling more refreshed, and fall asleep much faster because I’m not tossing and turning to find a spot that stops the whistling.”
The cosmetic effect was equally transformative. Her new nose seems to fit her face and looks completely natural, she says.
“The biggest comment I get is that I look younger,” she says.
The change in her appearance has also boosted her self-esteem and attitude.
“Every day I told myself how much I hated my nose,” she says. “You don’t realize it until you stop saying it, but we’re sending messages to ourselves.” With her newly formed nose, that self-talk has turned positive for the first time in years, she says. “I love, love, love my nose!”
