Does Your Nose Keep Growing? Would This Affect Outcome of Rhinoplasty?

Many patients and non-patients comment that the nose is one of the few areas of the body that continues growing. That is completely false. The nose does change however. Noses get longer with age from stretching of the ligaments holding the nasal tip cartilages up to the rest of the nose. Tip cartilages may get weaker. Also the skin stretches. These aging changes may make the nose look longer from a drooping tip. The hump may also look larger. In reality the bump stays the same but the rest of the nose is falling away from it.

Rhinoplasty should be directed at the nose as it currently is. Modern techniques often includes adding cartilage grafts for strength to withstand the healing process.

The nose doesn't continually grow all throughout your life, though it does undergo some changes related to aging, such as loss of fat, sometimes more drooping, etc. After a rhinoplasty your nose also changes for about a year slowly until it reaches the final state. That is because of swelling, skin contracture, scarring inside the nose, etc. can all impact the final outcome over time. So as part of that, it is possible that the nose drops a bit with time or changes in other ways. With good technique, you should have a good long-term outcome.
-Dr. David Mattos, New York Plastic Surgical Group

We typically place a columellar strut into the nasal tip, carved from your septal cartilage, to stabilize the position of the nasal tip, and prevent drooping of the tip with aging. Hope this helps. Dr Joseph