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.

Breaking the nose is usually done when a large hump is removed from the bridge of the nose or if the nose is too wide. Small humps can be gradually shaved down without the need to break the nose. Although, breaking the nose post-operatively is pretty well tolerated and it can give you a fantastic result. Good luck!