Background: Nasal obstruction is the foremost complaint of a large number of patients in otolaryngologic practice. Most of those patients have inferior turbinate hypertrophy. Surgery is one of the modalities of treatment to relieve patients of nasal obstruction. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of submucosal diathermy (SMD) and coblation in the treatment of hypertrophied inferior turbinate. Materials and methods:  The study included 30 consecutive adult patients with bilateral inferior turbinate hypertrophy, all patients underwent SMD in the right side and coblation in the left side by using the same device (coblator II, Arthrocare, USA). They were assessed for relief of variable nasal symptoms by subjective and objective methods. Results: According to the results obtained from this study, nasal obstruction improved significantly by both techniques, but more improvement was observed in the side treated by coblation, and coblation was less painful during the procedure and in the post-operative period. Both of the two techniques reduce the hypertrophied inferior turbinate significantly. Conclusions: Both SMD and Coblation of the inferior turbinate are safe and effective methods of relieving nasal obstruction and other associated symptoms due to inferior turbinate hypertrophy, without affecting the turbinate mucosal function.