What is Rhinoplasty?

Your nose is the most prominent feature on your face. Depending on shape, size and proportion to the rest of your features, it can highlight, obscure, distract or detract.

No matter what the “trend” in nose shapes and sizes—and there have been trends, often led by what is hot in Hollywood—ultimately, the issue is how well it works with your face and whether you are happy with the shape, size, and projection of your nose.

Cosmetic Rhinoplasty

The typical issues that are addressed with a nose job, or rhinoplasty include:

• A bump on the bridge of the nose
• The shape of the nose tip (bulbous, overlarge, tight, crooked, asymmetrical or misshapen)
• Repairing over-wide, overlarge, or long nostrils
• The size of the nose overall
• Wide nose bridge
• Flat nose bridge
• The angle between the nose and upper lip

As a group, these are commonly known as a rhinoplasty, and can include augmentation as well as reductions of various aspects of nose shape. These are all cosmetic procedures and can be done virtually any time after a person’s nose has stopped growing, which usually occurs between the ages of 15 and 17.

The term “ethnic rhinoplasty” has become popular. This refers to nose reshaping for various ethnic groups, like Afro-Caribbean, Pacific Rim, Asian, and Middle Eastern, and other ethnic backgrounds. A correctly performed rhinoplasty will take ethnic characteristics into account for the most natural and aesthetic outcome.

Post-Traumatic Rhinoplasty

An injury to the nose that has resulted in damage to the bone or cartilage can cause not just a change to appearance of the nose but to septal deviations, asymmetries, and result in breathing problems.

Deviations and asymmetries usually have a good success rate if performed within week to 10 days of the injury; however, to avoid blood clots around the cartilage which reduce blood flow and can destroy the cartilage, it is advised that a nose trauma treated is treated as a health emergency.

Revision Rhinoplasty

Revision rhinoplasty is a precise term that refers to a procedure to alter or correct a previous rhinoplasty. The may be called for when:

• The results of the first rhinoplasty were unsatisfactory in appearance, size, or shape. This may be due to the cosmetic outcome or a problem caused by the previous surgery, such as structure collapsing, too large, too small, or asymmetrical.
• Structural corrections needed to be done before the patient’s nose stopped growing, and the size and shape now have to be adjusted to suit the “adult” face.

The Rhinoplasty Procedure

Typically performed as an out-patient under general sedation, one of two types of incisions may be made in a rhinoplasty:

• Open, for reshaping the nose tip or correcting a wide nose, hump on bridge or other more serious cosmetic flaw. The incision is placed between the nostrils
• Closed, for minor reshaping, with the incision placed within the nose.

A nasal splint will be applied to the exterior of the nose, and absorbable packing will be placed inside the nose to support the new shape in most cases.

Recovery after Rhinoplasty

Packing will be removed in three to seven days. The splint will be removed, and the nose will start to take on its final resculpted look at about one week, though you may still see a minor bit of swelling and bruising. Healing is, essentially, complete at four weeks. There may, however, be some gradual, minor refinements occurring over the next year to 18 months.

Talk to Us About Rhinoplasty.

Dr. Dr. Vladimir Grigoryants, M.D., is here to help you look and feel your best. If you are unhappy with your nose, we can help. As an award-winning, board-certified plastic surgeon, you can be confident in his ability to create a new nose shape that truly enhances your face – in the most natural way.