If you’re unhappy with the size and/or shape of your nose then rhinoplasty is the plastic surgery treatment that will give you a permanent change.
Consultant Plastic Surgeon Mr James Murphy is one of the UK’s leading experts in rhinoplasty, and this is one of the most frequently performed treatments here at Manchester Plastic Surgery.
If you decide to explore having rhinoplasty with us, you’ll first attend an initial consultation to discuss what you dislike about your nose; we want to understand the results you’d like to see so that we have a shared vision of the end result and can assess whether it’s achievable.
At this session, we’ll be able to outline the approach that we feel will work best for you. The right approach to surgery will depend on your unique physiology and the results you’d like to achieve.
When it comes to the actual rhinoplasty surgery, there are two approaches – open rhinoplasty or closed rhinoplasty. Both treatments involve lifting the skin of the nose and making changes to bone and cartilage in line with the size and shape you have in mind.
If you have an open rhinoplasty, you will have two incisions inside the nose and another connecting the two across the bottom of the nose (the columella) which allows the surgeon to ‘peel back’ the skin of your nose to enable further sculpting.
In a closed rhinoplasty, there will be just the two incisions within the nose and no incision at the columella.
The right approach will depend on the changes you wish to achieve. There is little difference in terms of recovery although the open rhinoplasty usually results in a little more swelling, but this should not be a factor when deciding the preferred approach as swelling will subside during the recovery process.
There is a slight variation between open and closed rhinoplasty when it comes to scarring. If you have a closed rhinoplasty, all scars will be hidden inside the nostril. An open procedure involves a small scar running across the skin between the nostrils (columella). Very occasionally, there may be scars in the corners of the nostrils to reduce nostril size or flair. These scars fade over time and for most patients are barely visible.
When you attend your initial consultation, we’ll talk you through the advantages and disadvantages of open vs closed rhinoplasty, so you can decide if surgery is the right option for you.
