Rhinoplasty on the Asian Nose

Current plastic surgery statistics compiled by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reveal that ethnic groups are having more cosmetic plastic surgery. Asian-American background patients, for instance, had 809,939 cosmetic surgery procedures in 2011, six percent more than in 2010.

Leading the list was nose reshaping. Virtually all ethnic groups are proud of their heritage and want to keep the special facial characteristics that mark them as special. Like Hispanic and African-American patients, Asian patients only wish to refine what nature has given them and better balance individual faces.

Regardless where they live globally, the typical Asian face has:

• A broad nose
• Low nasal bridge
• Wide nostrils with thicker nostril walls

One Asian plastic surgeon in Dallas refers to such cosmetic surgery as “ethnic softening.” (Continued below)

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The patient below had her nasal tip raised and her nostrils slightly narrowed with no visible scarring. Plus, her low, flat nasal bridge seen on the left was raised by implanting a solid silicone insert. (Photo: Robert Kotler, MD.)

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(Continued) Many Asian rhinoplasty patients request more narrow nostrils.  However, not every Asian patient is right for nostril narrowing, as a part of a rhinoplasty or the functional surgeries for bent or deviated septum or turbinate reduction surgery.

To narrow the nostrils, the surgeon must excise a wedge shaped part of the sill, the floor of the nostril.  But any surgeon is limited in what can be done due to the how one’s ethnicity affects:

• Skin thickness (Read how skin matters in rhinoplasty)
• Cartilage strength
• Bone thickness

Asians usually have horizontally shaped oval nostrils. But the walls of the nostrils may be too thick. Some of those nostrils can be made slimmer while others can’t. Risking a procedure on thicker nostrils can result in visible scarring.

While most people of Northern European extraction want their noses made smaller, Asians often want a somewhat larger nasal size by raising the bridge. Solution? Transplantation is often used, utilizing natural tissues like bone and cartilage donations taken from various locations on the patient’s own body.

Solid silicone nose bridges have long been used with good results.

Another technique to permanently raise the bridge of an Asian nose is using injections of medical-grade liquid silicone. If that is the only change requested, the injections can be done in the doctor’s office, with no operating room needed.