What is Easier to Fix in Rhinoplasty, A Wide Bridge or a Bulbous Tip?

Both a wide bridge and bulbous tip can be treated using modern rhinoplasty techniques. Tip work is generally more complex than narrowing a wide bridge. Tip bulbosity can be caused by several factors including cartilage size and orientation and skin thickness. Many methods are available to address the cartilage aspect. Skin thickness is harder to address, though in some people the skin can be thinned somewhat to help with improving the appearance.

A wide bridge can be improved by performing controlled bone fractures to narrow the nasal bones. Of course, you can certainly treat both a wide bridge and bulbous tip at the same time during rhinoplasty.

Both of these concerns are commonly and frequently addressed during a rhinoplasty.  Maybe another way of asking your question is to say, what are possible complications in each of these areas after surgery.

Wide Bridge


inverted V deformity from high lateral osteotomy

lumps and irregularity on the bridge

removing too much or too little of the bridge


Bulbous Tip


Pinched appearance

Bossae formation (migration of the tip cartilages to the side)

twisting of the tip cartilages


Rhinoplasty is a very difficult surgery.  However, in the right hands, complication rates are rare and you can get very nice results that would correct the problems you report.

My opinion is that correcting a wide bridge is generally easier than reshaping a bulbous nasal tip. The former involves a more predictable surgical technique in a good majority of cases. There are certainly going to be exceptions to every rule, but in general narrowing a wide bridge is more readily done than defining a bulbous nasal tip.