Bone · Head

Inferior nasal concha

Concha nasalis inferior

A curled scroll of bone fixed to the side wall of the nasal cavity, hanging into the airway like a shelf about halfway down each nostril. It is the only one of the three nasal scrolls that is a separate bone — the superior and middle conchae are parts of the ethmoid above it. Its curve forces air entering the nose to travel over a much larger surface than an open tube would offer, which is how breathed air is warmed, moistened and stripped of dust before it reaches the lungs. The channel it roofs, the inferior meatus, is where the tear duct empties. The bone itself is thin and porous; the lining over it is thick and densely supplied with blood vessels, and it is that lining swelling — not the bone — that makes a nose feel blocked.