Can I Get Only Nose Rasping Done Instead of Full Rhinoplasty? (photo)

The first and most obvious goal any patient seeking rhinoplasty should have is satisfaction with the appearance of the nose after the procedure.  I would not agree to rasp your dorsal hump in isolation, because the chance of satisfaction with this approach is zero.  I recommend following the advice of Dr. Dennenberg, because each action a Surgeon takes in Rhinoplasty produces a reactive change.  Rasping or chiseling down a nasal hump leads to a broad, flat appearance known as a "book-spine deformity".  Osteotomies, or breaking the nasal bones allows the Surgeon to narrow the nasal bones, and restore harmony to the appearance of the nose.

There are a couple reasons not to just shave off the bump. First, if you just shave off the bump, it would leave a flat spot on your nose where the bump was. If the bump is like an Egyptian pyramid, and you take the top off, you are left with a flat plateau. Narrowing the bones makes the bridge of your nose normally narrow again after removing the hump. See my "Web reference" link for a morph of your nose without the hump, and more explanation of this topic.

There's another, less obvious reason not to just shave it off. When a hump is taken from a nose, it can make the nose *look* longer, as though the tip drooped down, even if the position of the tip didn't really change. The amount of that effect is different on different people, but the larger the hump, the more likely that we would consider raising the tip a little, not to make a shorty nose, or to change the character of your nose, but just so that the nose doesn't look longer to you after surgery. I made some morphs of that, too. 

Finally, in an operation that takes me about three hours, narrowing the nasal bones takes about three minutes, and it doesn't noticeably increase the swelling or bruising, so it's really a small issue.