Nose became less defined as it healed --1 month - 6 months, is this excess scar tissue?

Question

My nose has become a lot less defined, and more bulbous as it healed. I'm afraid there's excess scar tissue in there. I'm 6 months post op now, and will be going back to Korea in a week for a post op check up. Will steroid injections still be effective at this point? What are the tell tale signs of excess scar tissue? I don't seem to have pollybeak deformity. The right side of my nose is hard, but the left side is soft. My nose is also quite spongy in texture.

Mark B. Constantian, MD, FACS (retired) · Answer

One of the fallacies upon which rhinoplasty has always been built is that if the surgeon makes a perfect skeleton, the skin will take on that shape. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Skin has its own vectors of contraction – – posteriorly and medially (backward and toward the midline) in the upper nose and concentrically and backward around the tip – – those are the vectors that create supratip deformity and make the tip look round and shapeless.
Even though that is not your problem, I see the narrowness of the middle third and the bluntness of the tip. In the case of the middle third, the skeleton has narrowed because the height of your bridge was removed. In the case of the tip, the amount of skeletal reduction has exceeded what the nasal skin can do to reshape.
The skin, unfortunately for rhinoplasty surgeons and patients, is not a tablecloth. That is why I am such a proponent of closed rhinoplasty because it allows the surgeon to manipulate the skeleton but also see exactly how the skin is behaving: whether it is supported, whether the shape is proportionate, whether the airway is open. This is information that is simply not available to the open rhinoplasty surgeon.
Your problem is totally correctable, however. See a surgeon experienced in secondary rhinoplasty whose results you like and whom you trust. All the best.

Nose became less defined as it healed --1 month - 6 months, is this excess scar tissue?

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Nose became less defined as it healed --1 month - 6 months, is this excess scar tissue?

Answers (1)

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Everything you need to know about Rhinoplasty

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.