Can you break your nose and not have a mark?

[Eleven011]

Have a 10th grade frequent flyer on crutches today for a sprained ankle and also told me she broke her nose. Not asking for any special accomodations or anything, so I let it slide. But she has NO marks on her nose. No bruising, no swelling, not even a red mark. I asked her about that and she just stated that she went to the ER right away and iced it too. Like I said, she isn't asking for anything, so not a big deal, but just wondering if my internal eye roll I have been doing all day is warranted??

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

I would think from a physiological viewpoint, force strong enough to break cartilage would have enough impact on the soft tissue to break capillaries, and therefore, bruising. She must like attention.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Yes, you can. After applying ice, the swelling can go down.

Although my daughter was hit square in nose playing third base when our powerhouse catcher tried to make the runner return to 3rd base . .. and the runner got in between line-of-sight of the ball and my daughter.

She had a huge amount of swelling and two raccoon eyes.

[amoLucia]

A coworker got 'kicked' in the face when a pt kicked out of his blankets and his foot with blankets swiped the nurse on the bridge of her nose and knocked off her eyeglasses. Just a 'flick' kick.

She went home to bed and woke up few hours later with vomiting, dizziness with imbalance, a monster headache and vision blurriness. Her HH thought she was having a stroke. Went to ER and the xray was positive for a fracture on the bridge of her nose.

At the time, her nose only "smarted' - no real pain, no swelling, no bruising. But a fracture.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

In the short term, yes. There will be swelling and with good application of ice packs and positioning, it is possible to keep that to a minimum. Longer term, whether or not there will be any "marks" on the face will depend upon where the blood and excess fluid from the swelling will drain to. If it goes posterior, then there'll be complaints of stuffy nose/sinuses, but probably not any bruising. If it goes pretty much any other direction, there'll be some bruising under the eyes or under the nose. Some of that can be hidden with good application of makeup.