What is the purpose of rhinoplasty? Is it to breathe better through the nose?
The rhinoplasty is an aesthetic surgery that remodels the shape and appearance of the nose, with important effects on the aesthetics of a person's face. This type of surgery aims to make the face more harmonious as a whole, with the different components in proportion to each other, and the shape of the nose, as the centrepiece of the face, plays a key role in this harmony.
The rhinoplasty is carried out on people who are dissatisfied with a specific characteristic in the nose shape, and want to improve or eliminate this characteristic.
Through this surgery, you can reduce a nose that is too big for your face, you can achieve a slimmer nose when it was originally wide, you can align a nose that is deviated and eliminate unsightly irregularities in the “cane of the nose”, reshape the tip or improve the angle between the nose and the upper lip.
The ultimate goal is not to make a “new” nose, sculpt a “perfect” nose or imitate the nose of someone you know. The main aim of a rhinoplasty is to get a nose shape harmonious lines and measurements for a particular person's face, with the characteristics of each nose varying from person to person.
During the rhinoplasty A complementary surgery with aesthetic and functional implications, septoplasty, can also be performed. The aim of this specific surgery is to align and straighten the nasal septum (the middle portion of the nose, made up of bone and cartilage), bringing about not only changes in the nose shape as mainly changes in its function, which may be enough for a person to breathe better through a nostril that would otherwise be blocked.
This combination can not only resolve aesthetic aspects, with increased self-esteem and self-confidence, but can also resolve situations such as chronic nasal obstruction, cephalalgia (headaches) and reduce the likelihood of recurrent sinusitis.
What does rhinoplasty consist of and what should I expect?
The rhinoplasty consists of remodelling the tissues that give nose shape, It is a meticulous and somewhat time-consuming operation lasting between one and three hours.
This type of surgery can be performed under general anaesthesia or local anaesthesia and sedation, and can be done on an inpatient or outpatient basis, depending on the patient's physical condition and the degree of remodelling envisaged.
When some part of the bone needs to be remodelled by breaking it off, the pain can be more intense but perfectly manageable during surgery and after discharge home, with the need to take oral painkillers for seven to ten days after surgery.
It is usual for bruising to remain after surgery for three to five days if there is no bone manipulation, or for longer if there is no bone manipulation. rhinoplasty These bruises may involve broken portions of the bone and resolve spontaneously through absorption. Sometimes these ecchymoses migrate to the periocular region, but they are perfectly harmless.
According to rhinoplasty If the procedure is carried out by the open route (with incisions in the skin) or by the closed route (with intra-nasal incisions), the oedema (swelling) may take longer or less to be fully absorbed, and it may take one to two months for it to resolve completely. This oedema is absorbed spontaneously without complications, although it can mask some irregularity or asymmetry.
Sleeping with a slightly raised headboard and applying ice for the first few days can contribute to a faster recovery.
Sometimes it's common for the tip of the nose to feel somewhat numb, and this change may only resolve after a few weeks.
The stitches used to suture the incisions will be internal and invisible if the approach chosen is the closed route (approach from the inside of the nose) using resorbable threads, as opposed to the open route, where the incision is made at the level of the lower portion of the tip of the nose, between the nostrils (columella), where the thread used in the suture is removed after four to seven days. The scars are generally almost imperceptible.
