Can Stitches Still be in my Nose 5 Years After Rhinoplasty?

Yes, it could be but is unlikely. You need to see a rhinoplasty surgeon in your area and let him look inside your nose and see what is going on.

Choice of suture (stitch) material in rhinoplasty depends on the surgeon. Some use non-dissolving stitches for the tip cartilages. Very rarely, these stitches can migrate or poke out through the skin. To avoid this, knots should be buried under the cartilages and they should't be used near incisions. Personally, i feel that using dissolving stitches that last a few months is sufficient to obtain long lasting results. Over the two to four months that it takes these long acting dissolvable sutures to dissolve, healing and scar tissue is sufficient to keep things from shifting any further in the future.

If there is tenderness and/or swelling that occurs months to years later, you should have someone check to see if either a non-dissolvable stitch is poking out and needs to be removed. Sometimes even small implants may have been used that need to be addressed as well.