How often in rhinoplasty are "lower lateral cartilages repositioned" and why is this done?

There are number of reasons lower lateral cartilages are repositioned depending on the type of deformity one tries to correct. Most often, we use this technique to correct alar  retraction both for congenital or post surgical alar retractions. Suturing of nasal tip, which commonly used to refine the tip, can also lead to some alar repositioning. Alar notching can also be  corrected with repostioning of lateral alar cartilages.

Repositioning the lower alar cartilages should only be done if the lower alar cartilages are truly pointed superiorly (we call it cephalad). This is usually not the case though as the upper lateral cartilages keep the lower lateral cartilages down by way of the scroll (cartilage junction). The usual problem is that the lower lateral cartilages are obtuse (curved ) and have to be flattened; I prefer a horizontal mattress stitch for this rather than moving them to a non-anatomical location.