Do Osteotomies Narrow Your Bridge and is it Better to Have Them Done After Bridge Rasping?

Rasping a medium to large hump will get you a profile improvement, but in almost all cases the bony part of the nose will look wider than ideal. In very small humps, rasping alone may be used...but, most hump reductions need lateral osteotomies in order to close the gap between the bones (open roof), narrow the nasal bones, and give a better aesthetic look to the nose on frontal view. Hope this is of help. All the best, Dr. Vartanian from LA.

The bridge of the nose is similar to an A-frame for house or building. Rasping down a hump on the bridge is like removing the point on top of the A. The wider/bigger the piece removed the larger the opening left after its removal. If you start with a large hump on the bridge you will of course have a bigger opening after you remove it. We call this an open roof deformity. In order to close the roof we make cuts in the bone (osteotomies) lower down on the sides of the A structure so that we... more

The more you take down a hump on the nasal dorsum (bridge) by rasping or any other method, the wider the bridge will appear. Think of it as truncating a pyramid; the more you take off at the top, the wider the remaining structure will appear. For that reason, when taking down a large hump, lateral osteotomies are often done so that the bridge does not look wider than before the reduction. It probably would be best for you to do computer imaging before surgery so your surgeon gets an... more