Background: Rhinoplasty can achieve many different types of nasal changes. The classic requested changes would be reduction of a prominent hump or bump and making the tip smaller, more refined and usually shorter. Straightening of a crooked nose is also a common request and is done as part of any other nasal shape change. These type of rhinoplasty changes are the same whether one is male or female.
Women may have rhinoplasty surgery to achieve a number of specific changes including a smaller and more upturned nose, hump removal and thinner straighter nose. Often times they require a more subtle reshaping or reduction than that seen in men for an improved nasal appearance. Small hump and hook removals can have a big impact on a teenager’s or young woman’s self-image.
But some women have larger noses with thick skin that make them not unlike that of men. Their reductions and nasal reshaping is not subtle and requires more drastic cartilage and bone changes to achieve a more feminine type nose.
Case Study: This 44 year old women wanted to reshape her nose and have it become more proportionate. She hated her large nasal hump and her thick tip which plunged downward. She felt her nose was very masculine and did not match the rest of her face.
Under general anesthesia an open rhinoplasty was performed. A large hump eduction was done creating an open roof which required medial and lateral osteotomies to close. The caudal septum was shortened and the tip lifted and narrowed. Her septum was also straightened and her inferior turbinates reduced.
While she had some immediate improvements in the shape of her nose right when the tapes and splint were removed, it really took a full nine months to see the final shape. The real indicator of when the nose has completely healed and assumed its final shape is when the entire nose (including the tip) feels soft and all the feeling has returned to the skin over the tip. A soft supple tip is the best indicator of the final rhinoplasty.
With the right type of rhinoplasty and even time to heal, even large nose in many women can be given much better shapes that appear more feminine.
Highlights:
1) Rhinoplasty can effectively reduced a prominent dorsal hump and achieve improved tip shape.
2) The controlling factor in many rhinoplasties, including women, is how well the overlying skin can shrink down to the reshaped osteocartilaginous framework.
3) The female rhinoplasty with thicker skin and a larger nose can take many months to achieve its final shape.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana