Hanging Columella - How Would It Be Fixed? (photo)

It certainly would be possible to just take care of your hanging columella. Technically, there are several relatively easy ways to do this. Remember, however, that the nose is all about perspective. Once you change one part of the nose, other parts of the nose, that looked okay to you before, may now not look quite right. I would worry, for instance, that once the columella is better, you my feel that the tip looks too big and boxy. You would be a perfect candidate for computer imaging. This way, your surgeon could show you what your nose would look like once the hanging columella was fixed, so that you could make sure that you liked the result. You could then compare this result to an imaged picture of a more complete rhinoplasty in order to help make the best decision. Good Luck. 

In addition to  shaving off a little bit of the caudal cartilaginous septum, you can resect a millimeter or two of the membranes septum to try to improve the appearance of the hanging columella.  

 The Columella is hanging but as you say, there are other issues aesthetically with the nose.  The bridge is very low :scooped" and the tip is over-rotated which is one of the reasons the Columella is so obvious.  The crural feet of the tip, in the Columellar area, is separated and has created an obvious groove making the Columella more pronounced.  


 To treat the hanging Columella alone, I have used a Columellar tuck procedure that can be performed without a Rhinoplasty.

If the rest of the nasal tip is to be addressed, this would require a Tip plasty.

If the nasal bridge was to be built up, a dorsal graft would be required as part of a full Rhinoplasty.


 Hope this helps.