Can I Pull the Tape to a Side in Order to Keep my Nose Straight?

Taping the nose after rhinoplasty is helpful for swelling but likely will not straighten your nose.  Rhinoplasty for a crooked nose will make the nose straighter, but it may not be completely straight.  You may cause more harm than good by taping your nose incorrectly.  See your original surgeon for more information.

Cartilage has positional and shape memory. If you bend your ear forward and hold it there all day it goes back to where/what it was as soon as you let go. The same is true of cartilage in the nose so there is some inherent recurrence rate after nasal surgery to straighten nasal cartilage. There are some techniques that can be used to lower this recurrence rate. These include the use of shaping sutures placed in the cartilage and/or suturing cartilage grafts to the native cartilage as a splint just as you would splint a broken bone. These work because bent cartilage held in a constant straightened position in situ will reshape itself over a few months. The external tape could only work if its pull were constant for a few months. That does not happen because the tape loosens with each day that is worn. As soon as you take the tape off to change it the cartilage moves back to its original position and the clock starts over again.

My response to your question/post does not represent formal medical advice or constitute a doctor patient relationship. You need to consult with i.e. personally see a board certified plastic surgeon in order to receive a formal evaluation and develop a doctor patient relationship.