Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty Basics

Rhinoplasty is one of the world's oldest cosmetic surgeries. Early forms of rhinoplasty were being performed as long ago as 500 BC. This surgery is equally popular today. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, rhinoplasty was the second most popular cosmetic surgery in 2010, with 252,000 different Americans going under the knife.

The word rhinoplasty comes from the Greek roots "rhino" and "plasty." "Rhino" means nose, and "plasty" means to shape or mold. Rhinoplasty is sometimes called "nose reshaping," "nose job," and "nose surgery."

A rhinoplasty can do a lot to change the shape of the nose. It can reduce the size of unattractively large and prominent noses. By using injectables or fillers, it can increase the size of an excessively small nose. It can remove nasal humps, and it can help to correct nasal droop. It can change the shape of the nose to make it more appealing, and it can bring the nose into better overall harmony with the rest of the face.

Rhinoplasty costs can vary quite a bit, depending on a number of factors. Depending on the nature of the surgery, they can cost as little as $3,000 or as much as $15,000. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the average surgeon's fee for a rhinoplasty is $4,357. However, some surgeons charge more, and some charge less. Also, this number does not take anesthesia fees, facility fees, and other costs into consideration. The surgery typically takes one or two hours to perform, and it provides permanent results. It can be performed under local or general anesthesia.

Patients typically need to take between a week and a week and a half off of work. Some amount of bruising and swelling is very common after a rhinoplasty, and it's fairly common for patients to experience a short "raccoon stage" where they experience two black eyes. However, this goes down with time, and the bruising will typically disappear after about two weeks.

A rhinoplasty typically does not cause much by way of visible scarring. In a rhinoplasty, most of the surgical incisions can actually be hidden inside the nose. In some cases, an incision will be required on the underside of the nose, but even this is not typically very noticeable.

When the surgery goes well, it can greatly improve the appearance of the face. In some cases, the surgeon can also address functional problems of the nose during surgery. For example, the surgeon can treat a patient's deviated septum to help air to flow better.

There are some risks associated with rhinoplasty, though. Aside from the typical risks of surgery such as anesthesia complications, incompetent surgeons can cause nasal problems. If the surgeon is not careful, he or she could cause a septal perforation, or a hole in the wall between the two nostrils. This can cause difficult breathing and a strange whistling sound while breathing. Nasal adhesions which obstruct the passage of air in the nose are also possible. These require additional surgery to remove.

There is, of course, the potential for aesthetic problems as well. If a surgeon removes too much of the underlying nasal tissue, the nose can lose its shape and appear strange. However, with a talented and experienced surgeon there is little to fear. The best surgeons know just what to do to improve your appearance and safeguard your health.

Rhinoplasty Types

Primary Rhinoplasty

The term primary rhinoplasty simply means the first time that a rhinoplasty is performed on a specific patient. This surgery can address functional concerns, although it is more common for the surgery to be attempted for aesthetic reasons.

In some cases, this surgery can also be used to reconstruct or fix a nose after nasal injury. During the surgery, the cartilage and bone of the nose can be manipulated, broken and re-aligned, and sanded. These changes to the underlying nasal structure allows for injuries that otherwise would not be correctable to be fixed. The surgery is also used to fix congenital defects and to simply improve the appearance of a person's face and nose.

Primary rhinoplasty procedures typically cost somewhere between $3,000 and $8,000.

Secondary Rhinoplasty

Although the majority of rhinoplasty patients only ever need to get one surgery, there are some people who need additional nasal surgery. Some people injure their nose after a rhinoplasty, and some people simply aren't happy with the results of their first surgery.

In these cases, a secondary rhinoplasty (or revision rhinoplasty) may be performed. This surgery will then help to revise, correct, or improve on what the first nasal surgery accomplished. In some cases, the surgery will merely focus on aesthetic problems which the first rhinoplasty ignored or exacerbated. In other cases, the surgery will help to fix functional problems that an initial rhinoplasty either caused or failed to adequately fix.

Secondary rhinoplasty procedures are usually much more complicated and difficult than an initial rhinoplasty. Because the area has already been operated on before, the tissues may be harder to reshape. Because of this, many secondary rhinoplasties are performed using the open technique, which will be described below.

Because secondary rhinoplasties are so much more complex, they typically cost much more than primary rhinoplasties. A secondary rhinoplasty will frequently cost between $10,000 and $15,000.

Closed Rhinoplasty

Although there are a number of different ways to perform a rhinoplasty, these typically fall into one of two major categories: open rhinoplasty and closed rhinoplasty. Closed rhinoplasty is a very common way of performing a rhinoplasty. In a closed rhinoplasty, there are no visible incision or scars. All of the surgical incisions are hidden inside the nose. Because all of the incisions are made in the nose, however, the surgeon has slightly less freedom than he or she might in an open rhinoplasty. Some surgeons dislike the closed technique because they feel that it restricts their access to the inner nose and interferes with their ability to adequately reshape and beautify the nose.

Despite this decreased access, closed rhinoplasty remains the most popular form of rhinoplasty, because it prevents visible scarring. Closed rhinoplasty may also have some other benefits. Because there is less cutting involved, there may be a lowered chance of infections and other surgical complications. There is typically less postoperative swelling and edema build-up after a closed rhinoplasty. Closed rhinoplasty also typically requires a shorter recovery time.

Open Rhinoplasty

An open rhinoplasty is more invasive than a closed rhinoplasty. It requires more incisions, and some of these are visible. Just as in a closed rhinoplasty, incisions are made on the inside of the nose. However, an additional cut is added on the underside of the nose, between the nostrils. Because of this added incision, the surgeon is able to peel back the nasal skin and get complete and unobstructed access to the structure of the inner nose.

This presents some risk of visible scarring, although not typically too great or noticeable (few people actively stare at the underside of other people's noses). In some cases, this risk of scarring can be very worth it, because it allows the surgeon to make greater changes in the nose.

Whether you should get open or closed rhinoplasty depends on your goals. If you're looking to make large and sweeping changes to the nose, you may be better off going with an open rhinoplasty. On the other hand, if you're looking to make relatively small changes, a closed rhinoplasty may be sufficient, and it could save you the possibility of developing external scarring.

However, a closed rhinoplasty cannot usually shorten noses that are too long, or noses that are severely crooked. It can also not usually make significant changes to the tip of the nose. If a patient has a severely malformed nasal tip, or if the nose is overly long or crooked, an open rhinoplasty may be the best bet.

The closed rhinoplasty technique is very popular for primary rhinoplasties. However, when a patient needs a secondary rhinoplasty, the open technique is much more common. Because an open rhinoplasty makes the nose much more visible and accessible to the surgeon, it makes it much easier to perform complex revisionary surgeries.

Ethnic Rhinoplasty

People of all backgrounds and ethnicities are interested in cosmetic surgery. However, each culture has somewhat unique ideals of beauty and attractiveness. In the past, cosmetic surgeries would often change people of other races and give them features which were considered attractive from a western, Caucasian standpoint. However, recently procedures such as ethnic rhinoplasty have been growing in popularity.

Although an ethnic rhinoplasty is performed using the same techniques as other types of rhinoplasty, it is done with a different purpose in mind. An ethnic rhinoplasty aims at improving the appearance of a person's nose without making the person appear racially different. Ethnic rhinoplasty is on the rise among African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. This procedure allows them to improve their appearance without giving up their ethnic heritage and appearance.

If you are a member of an ethnic minority, it may be a good idea to find a surgeon who has a track record of performing ethnic rhinoplasties on people with your background. Because concepts of beauty are so different from culture to culture and race to race, it can help to find someone who has a good deal of experience helping people like you. The more a surgeon has operated on a specific ethnicity, the more likely he or she is to understand how to help that ethnicity to improve their appearance within their cultural and racial ideals.