Nose Surgery

Plastic Surgery Center - Phone 410-616-3000

Nasal surgery or rhinoplasty is a frequently requested for procedure. Commonly reffered to as a "nose job", this can be done as young as 16 when the nose has completed it's growth.

There have been major shifts in the goal of the surgery and in the way rhinpolasty is performed over the past 10 - 20 years. In times past, almost everyone ended up with the same nose, which does not age well with time, and does not always look right on all faces. The goal now is to create more balance to the face. Rhinoplasty is one procedure that it can be fun to simulate on a computer, understanding that one can draw many things on a computer, but this may not be exactly how the tissues respond to surgical manipulations. Still, even with these limitations, it is a good communication tool to see how you would look keeping the rest of the face the same, and making changes to the shape of the nose. When you are having this done, called computer morphing, also ask to see if the chin is in balance. Many patients coming in for a rhinoplasty have a condition where the nose is accentuated because the chin is too far back, creating a back sloping facial profile. Recognizing this and creating a surgical plan for maximal balance can create dramatic results.

Rhinoplasty is performed under anesthesia, and most of the stitiches are inside and dissolvable, although there may be a small scar across the narrow part of the strip below the tip of the nose. The new shape is created by chaging the bone and cartilage, and the skin must redrape as the swelling goes down. At times some skin is removed from the nostrils. Usually there is a splint in the postoperative period for about a week, and you may also get black eyes. After two weeks most of the swelling is gone, however you will still feel some numbness and a little swelling for up too a year and a half. We watch for shifts in the shape, or build up of scar tissue, and approximately 15% of all patients after rhinoplasty require a second surgery to get the optimal effect.

You may want to see whose nose you have inherited, and thank that side of the family for all the inherited characteristics of your body and personality for which you are grateful before making the change.