Optimal respiration is not necessarily determined by the quantity of air passing through the nose: do not forget that the nose has the very important task of acting as a filtering and olfactory organ.

When we breathe, the air that enters has to follow specific paths during which it is heated up (e.g. imagine that when breathing air coming from outside at -4 degrees, on entering the vocal cords will have reached 32° and 98% of humidity) and is purified from the impurities it contains: the dust particles deposited on nasal mucus are removed and eliminated within the span of 15 minutes, a very fast cleaning process if we compared it to that which occurs in the alveoli of the lungs and which takes about 60-120 days.

The nose works as a veritable gas mask: it is the organ that withholds 90% of sulphurous anhydride which would otherwise irritate and damage the tissues. Sulphurous anhydride produced by industries and car fumes that irritate and damage the tissues, is withheld by the nose. 

An “important” nose" surely does not entail any problems in terms of air quantities which it allows to transit, but rather, in terms of quality: the turbine of currents it creates within the nostrils does not ensure correct filtration and lets the impurities deposit in the throat and on the vocal cords.

The same problem arises in cases of a “saddle nose” (pointing up too much). Instead, one could have a regular air flow in a regularly-shaped nose of the right size.

We can thus affirm that often a functional surgical procedure can also give aesthetically appreciated results and, on the other hand, a surgical intervention requested solely for aesthetic reasons must never jeopardize nasal functionality.