Rhinoplasty is the surgical technique designed to improve the appearance of the nose and harmonize it with your face. More and more people decide to undergo a rhinoplasty operation, either because they are not comfortable with the shape of their nose or for health reasons: deviated septum, breathing difficulties, trauma that deviated the nose, old fractures, etc.
It’s important that you have a realistic expectation of results, and that you understand the image you want to get. The ideal patient is the one who has the emotional maturity to understand that is a matter of enhancing his or her own beauty, not of resembling someone else. Age is a relevant factor, it is not convenient to perform the operation before the age of 14 or 15, since the nose must be fully developed.
The surgery lasts approximately between one and two hours and depending on the case of each patient can be performed with:
- Local Anesthesia with Pharmacological Sedation (Ambulatory)
- General Anesthesia (Requires one day’s hospitalization)
On Cambio 19.80, the patient will be able to see on the computer, thanks to an advanced simulation program. The result he will obtain after the operation of his nose.
Dr. Luis Alberto Guerra Araujo, by means of pre-surgical photos, makes the pertinent modification, to get a result as close to reality as possible. The objective is to avoid stereotyped results and adept the patient´s nose to the anatomical characteristics and proportions of his face.
A secondary rhinoplasty is a procedure performed on a nose that has been operated one or more time. These secondary surgeries are more complex than the primary ones and require a detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the nose and the use of complementary methods such as grafts or septumplastias.
The first step consists of making incisions which, most of the time, are located inside the nasal organ. In more complex cases, or in re interventions, a small incision is made in the columella (the region that separates the nostril). If the base of the nose is to be shrunk, external incisions are made that will become inconspicuous over time.
The next step is to separate the skin and shape the bone and cartilage so that they get the desired shape: narrowing the tip, making it more upturned, refining the whole nasal organ, rectifying it, placing cartilage grafts or correcting septum deviations. Once this phase is completed, the skin is adapted to its new support. At the same time, internal nasal surgery can be performed in order to improve respiratory function. To finish, a plaster cast is placed to protect and maintain the new shape of the nose, and pits are filled with stoppers.
It is an operation that is not, in general, painful, although frequently bruises and inflammation appear in the area near the eyes, for a few days. The nose is often blocked for a few hours or a day, which can make the patient uncomfortable and temporarily have to breathe through the mouth. Normally the splint or rigid bandage made of moldable plastic or plaster, is removed a week after the intervention, to prevent inflammation from modifying the result, and it should be borne in mind that, once the dressing is removed, the nose will still be slightly edematized and it should be necessary to wait some time, which may vary from patient to patient, to contemplate the final result.
Are the results permanent?
In most cases the results are permanent, although the patient is not exempt from possible changes related to the natural aging process.
What can be improved in a nose?
It will depend on the face of each person, but you can improve the tip, the back, the nasal septum, if it is too big, if there are breathing problems … or all at once. But the objective should not be only the nose, but the harmony of everything that surrounds it.
Is the intervention the same in men as in women?
Not exactly. There are small differences between female and male rhinoplasty, both in the intervention itself and in the features sought. For the woman, a more youthful nose, with a slightly raised tip, which softens and rejuvenates the patient’s features. In men, work is done to achieve a nose with a greater identity that well represents the masculinity of the patient, with a straighter tip.
When do you see the final results?
Approximate results can be seen in about three weeks. But the nose that has undergone a rhinoplasty can suffer small changes for months, even a year.