Break or Not to Break Nose During Rhinoplasty?

Most commonly the bones are shaved down over the dorsum and the hump is removed. Once this is done the base of the bones have to be broken to move the base of the bones inward to close the nose down into a pyramid.
I would not overly concern your self with the detailed parts of the surgery as if it is necessary it needs to be done.

"Breaking the nose" is a very crude term for something that is occasionally performed during rhinoplasty. The medical term for this is actually called an osteotomy. This is a very controlled cutting of the bone that is performed to narrow the upper portion of the nose.  It is not performed in every rhinoplasty. There are three situations when this usually comes up: 1) narrowing a wide nose 2) after a hump is removed the nose can sometimes be wide and this technique may need to be performed (see attached) and 3) Making a crooked nose straighter. Performing an osteotomy does not mean that your recovery will be any different then if it were not performed during your surgery.

The osteotomies or re-breaking of the nasal bone is performed to narrow a wide bridge. Once the large hump has been taken off the bridge the osteotomies and re-breaking of the nasal bones have to occur; otherwise, an open roof deformity will result, which will look like a flattop nose. If a small hump is present, these can be simply filed off and re-breaking of the nose will not need to occur.