Does Your Nose Keep Growing? Would This Affect Outcome of Rhinoplasty?

Many patients and non-patients comment that the nose is one of the few areas of the body that continues growing. That is completely false. The nose does change however. Noses get longer with age from stretching of the ligaments holding the nasal tip cartilages up to the rest of the nose. Tip cartilages may get weaker. Also the skin stretches. These aging changes may make the nose look longer from a drooping tip. The hump may also look larger. In reality the bump stays the same but the rest of the nose is falling away from it.

Rhinoplasty should be directed at the nose as it currently is. Modern techniques often includes adding cartilage grafts for strength to withstand the healing process.

We typically place a columellar strut into the nasal tip, carved from your septal cartilage, to stabilize the position of the nasal tip, and prevent drooping of the tip with aging. Hope this helps. Dr Joseph

The nose doesn’t continue to grow
past the age of twenty.This doesn’t
mean that changes in size and shape don’t occur as the nose ages.These changes are related to skin thickening,
soft tissue laxity and the constant downward force of gravity.Over the course of time the nasal
structures age in the same manner as other facial structures.With aging, facial and nasal soft tissue
tends to sag and droop.This phenomena is
often confused with continued nasal growth, but in reality is part of normal
facial aging. These changes continue after
rhinoplasty and are considered a normal part of facial aging.Rhinoplasty can set the clock back but never
stops the clock from ticking. The nose will continue to age along with the rest
of the face.