Question:
I am an African American female and I am interested in rhinoplasty. I would like my nose to extend just a bit more than it does, and I would also like it narrowed. Would you be able to do this surgery so that my nose still looks natural for my ethnicity?
Answer:
Treatment of the African American nose and other ethnic rhinoplasty often times involves lengthening the nose, strengthening the nose, and thinning the nose. In order to lengthen the nose, cartilage is used to help support and extend the nasal tip. These grafts are obtained from your nasal septum and occasionally from ear cartilage if there is a deficiency in septal cartilage. The tip is also sculpted with specially placed sutures and sometimes, a graft is placed on the nasal tip to provide length and tip definition. By extending the nasal tip it also tends to narrow the nose at the lower portion of the nose. If the nose still needs to be narrowed and the extension of the nose and tip graft are not sufficient, it may be because your nostrils also need to be narrowed as is often times the case. I think the worst noses are the ones that are overdone and unnatural. My requests for ethnic rhinoplasty is that the patients tend to want changes to their nose but, they do not want to change some of the ethnic qualities of their nose they are fond of.
Posted by Dr. Philip Schoenfeld