I Have Developed a Dimple in the Middle of my Nose Which Becomes More Defined After Excercise, Why?

Question

I have recently noticed the development of a dimple in the middle of the tip of my nose. The dimple seems to be where the cartilage and the nose bone meet. When I wake up it is not there but becomes more defined during the course of the day and even deeper and more defined after excercise, with the tip catilage looking noticeably "split" down the middle orginating at the dimple. What would cause this?

William Portuese, MD · Answer

A dimple in the midportion of the nose is most likely a depression due to a slight cleavage plain between the left and right lower lateral cartilages of the nasal tip.  When lying down at night, a patient’s edema and lymph fluid become equilibrated throughout the body.  However, after sometime in the morning, the fluid leaves the nose and travels to the lower extremities and the dimple becomes more obvious.  This is a normal physiologic response.  There are a couple of different approaches to repairing this issue; suturing techniques to sew the dimple and cleavage closed, and/or augmenting the small dimple area with a small graft of morselized cartilage to that area.

Joseph Rucker, MD, FACS (retired) · Answer

This sounds like a situation where the dimple probably always been there but not really that noticable.  During exercise our skin will thicken somewhat and when that happens the dimple remains attached to deeper tissues but the surrounding skin of the nose swells causing the dimple to appear larger and deeper. This is common on the nose because of the thickness of the skin on the nasal tip.  Hope this has helped.  J.Rucker M.D.

I Have Developed a Dimple in the Middle of my Nose Which Becomes More Defined After Excercise, Why?

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I Have Developed a Dimple in the Middle of my Nose Which Becomes More Defined After Excercise, Why?

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