It used to be that nose jobs, rhinoplasty, in the ‘60s, 70’s and 80’s resulted in a lot of upturned pixie noses. Large noses were minimized into dramatically smaller ones, upturned at the tip. The problem with this, explains Dr. Jeffrey Raval, is that the aesthetic and function didn’t work in concert for the patient.

One of the missing parts about nose jobs like this is the reason for newer techniques in nose jobs today. “When we take something out of the nose, we realize we weaken it and we have to put something back,” says Dr. Raval.

Yes, even in the case of making a nose smaller, a new application of cartilage is necessary to help reshape the nose to be most natural looking and better functionally.
The cartilage can be harvested from one’s own body—like from the nose itself or the ear—or is readily accessible from surgical suppliers.

In the case of a person who has had nose injuries—one or more—in athletics, especially, the need for additional cartilage is apparent because the inside of the nose has collapsed, leaving a flattened or mashed look. Inserting bone and/or new cartilage will remedy that.

Another thing that happens after a person has suffered an athletic injury to the nose, or even in a car accident, is that the nasal cartilage may be lost and has to be replaced. This is also true in the case of a revision rhinoplasty—repeat nose surgery when a first nose job has been a failure.

Dr. Jeffrey Raval is known among fellow physicians as The Nose Guy for his expertise in revision nose surgery.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 9:49 am and is filed under Nose Job, Rhinoplasty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.