Does it in fact mean 0% of turbinate remaining? Or is it just that the doctor goes in without intent of leaving anything behind?  I think I have read about "total turbinectomy patients who have 10, 20, 30% of turbinates remaining (all estimates of course).

Do those patients literally never experience any nasal congestion at all, their experience of their nose is just a permanently wide open hole back through to their throat?  

If that is the case, I do have a very difficult time imagining anyone could be "fine" with that.  However, I am really just trying to understand what "total turbinectomy" means.

Really I am not certain how it can be guaranteed that the endgame of these various procedures is necessarily always different.  Whether you had a "total", "partial", or "submucosal mucosa-preserving" resection, if your tissue eventually drys out, atrophies, and dies I really don't see what difference it makes.