Possible Broken Nose. Will it Look Exactly the Same After it's Fixed?

Your surgeon should be able to have your nose appear close to your original nose. But it really depends on your individual circumstances and the nature of the trauma. I would recommend communicating these concerns with your surgeon. I hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck.

It is common to wait a few days to allow the intial swelling to decrease prior to performing a repair of a facial bone injury.  This allows the soft tissue envelope to normalize which makes restoring the bone position easier.  No one can guarantee that reduction of a fracture will result in a perfect restoration of a nasal contour.

The changes in your nose after you have broken it depends somewhat on the severity of the break and degree of displacement. If the nose is "reset" after the break, it has a good chance to have a similar look, but not an exact look of what you had before.  In severe breaks, where there are many pieces of broken bone, the nose often looks different after repair of the broken bones.  It is also possible that a secondary surgery is needed to reshape your nose if there is a significant deformity once it heals.  Such a surgery would not be undertaken until one year after injury. RB

     If you broke your nose, the bones can be realigned with closed reduction in the first few days.  After a couple of weeks, you will need osteotomies to break the bone.  The bone can be fractured in a very precise pattern.  The result should be similar to your preoperative state, but no one should promise you the exact same nose.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

With a nasal fracture, the nose first may need to be straightened and then a revision may be required to smooth out any irregularities 6 months down the road.

After a nasal bone fracture no surgeon can guarantee that the nose will look precisely as it did before surgery.  When the bone is broken this can be reduced, but the fracture itself causes some soft tissue scar and changes that  the surgeon cannot reverse.

 Fracture and displacement of the nose can  result in many different asymmetries of the nose. The  Upper lateral cartilages can also become displaced as a result of the fracture.  After reduction of the nasal fracture  the nose should look very similar to the original nose, however the nasal bones tend to be more narrow  due to osteotomies that are needed to be performed to straighten the  nasal bone fractures.

It is impossible to guarantee that your nose will look "exactly" the same after closed reduction as it did before your injury. Usually a crooked or deviated fractured nose can be straightened with a closed reduction and patients are very happy with the results. I hope this information is helpful.Stephen Weber MD, FACSWeber Facial Plastic Surgery

It is common practice to wait up to 7-10 days after a fresh nasal fracture to allow the swelling to subside and get a better picture of the extent of injury. It also makes it easier to palpate the bones prior to closed reduction. A closed reduction will bring them back  closely to pre injury state in many patients. It is impossible to guarantee that your nose will be "exactly" the same as before and that you won't need further procedures in the future. That is just the nature of the healing process.

There is never a guarantee that it will look exactly the same. If it is deviated, a closed reduction should be performed within the first 2 to 3 weeks and it should be closer to what you had before.