One side of nose collpases inward with deep breath

I've been having odd issues recently with swelling on one side of my nose. The swelling has persisted for over five weeks now. The doctor gave me a topical antibiotic (mupirocin) for inflammation 8 days ago. Now when I breathe very deeply through my nose, the side with the swelling (unchanged after five weeks) collapses shut completely. I noticed this less than a day ago. I don't know if this is related to the problems I've been having, or just coincidence and nothing to be concerned about. I have to breathe very deeply for this effect to occur. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Jordy]

I'm not an expert, but under normal circumstances the sides of the nose do tend to cave in slightly with hard inhales through the nose.  I had a septorhinoplasty years ago and one side, my right side, does pull in a little sometimes and my ENT called it "alar collapse" which is quite common with that kind of surgery.

Whether or not you had a surgery before, as I said, it sounds to me like you are becoming so conscious of your nasal situation that you are noticing things you never would have noticed before (that type of "hyper" awareness is also quite common when you start focusing on ANY health problem.)  It sounds like the pressure is increased because of the swelling.  If it's a swollen turbinate, that decreases the normal amount of space in your nostril and what would have normally been a slight alar collapse on inhale would SEEM a lot more "constricting."

[E.Smith]

I think you're probably right. Thanks much.

[sedgeseg]

Hi there, well you just got me breathing in deeply in front of the mirror to have a look at what my nose does if i do what you have explained.The result i get is both go in as such to close, one more than the other, so this could well be sinus related by as much as one side of your nose may be blocked.

A quick check with a doctor should help you