Bulbous nose tip & need ostomy, natural nose, silicone or donor cartilage?

Donor cartilage is not living tissue and has the risk of resorption, which means your nose can look great for years but over time your body can break down and absorb the cartilage thus causing the nose to lose it's shape. Silicone is a terrible thing to place inside your nose as it's temporary, will thin out your skin, will always look unnatural over time. Your own cartilage is the best source to create a nose that is naturally beautiful permanently.

For rhinoplasty, there are many materials that can be used: silicone, goretex, septal/ear/rib cartilage. Asian nose usually have smaller nose structure, and Asian nose rhinoplasty requires to build the nose from the base - structure - bridge - and tip. Sometimes using foreign material extensively in the nose structure may increase the possibility of infections, complications, or contractions. In order to have least possibilities of complications, I recommend using your own cartilage.Septal cartilage inside the nose is good for rhinoplasty, but if the amount of septal cartilage is limited, autologous rib cartilage (your own rib cartilage) is recommended to build the entire structure & the shape.

Hello, hope you are well. Thank you for your question. Generally speaking, most surgeons in the United States prefer to use rib cartilage (homologous/donated or autologous/from oneself) because it has a lower rate of implant infection and extrusion complications. I personally use cartilage grafts for this reason.
Best,Dr. Tower

I always recommend fresh frozen donor cartilage (assuming it is fresh frozen cartilage like MTF, not irradiated donor cartilage which is different) over silicone. Fresh frozen cartilage provides lasting results. Silicone comes with a number of serious potential complications including infection and extrusion, so I do not recommend it.

Thank you for your question. As a rule of thumb, I never use silicone in the nose. Over time, silicone can be recognized as foreign by the body. When this happens, the body will start to reject the silicone implant - requiring revision rhinoplasty.. If you look at the medical literature, complication rates, long-term, are higher for silicone and other implantable material over cartilage. In my practice, I only use cartilage and facia for rhinoplasty on patients with Asian descent. In experienced hands, the rate of resorption is far less than implant failure.

I hope this helps answer your question. Good luck to you.

Best,

Dr. E.