Nose Lift

I wonder if watching too much Western movies makes us conscious about the height of our nose. Before the 70s little has been known about adding height to the bridge of the nose or nose lifting or rhinoplasty. Non-medical practitioners would inject a silicone material in an attempt to increase bridge height. Most patients at that time and even in the 80s would go for those silicone injections.

To date, the side effects that procedure are seen like persistent redness of the nose, widening of the nose to spreading of the injected material, to infections from the injected material. These cases can be resolved by removing the silicone material or foreign body – by either scraping it off under local anesthesia or melting it with mesomelt. Unfortunately if the injected material has already migrated near the upper layer of the skin, no amount of scrapping can remove it. It has to be melted with the procedure called mesomelt, but it takes time before everything normalizes.

The patient usually opts to replace the injected material with a nasal implant. Implants can either be silicone implants or goretex implants. Others choose cartilage taken from the patient’s ear which is the safest as no rejection is possible since it comes from the patient’s own body.

The goretex nasal implant is easier to shape and is natural looking.

The patients go for rhinoplasty for several reasons, but mostly for increased self-confidence . Patients as young as 16 years old can undergo the procedure, which is done under local anesthesia. There is no special preparation necessary for patients with no known medical problems. For those with known family history of diabetes or are diabetic, a blood sugar test is done before the procedure.  This minor operation takes 30 minutes to do and the patient may go home afterwards.

The goretex implant is shaped depending on the patient’s profile to make it as natural looking as possible . Patients are cautioned not to wet the area when bathing or washing their faces until the stitches are removed on the seventh day. Swimming can be resumed after one month. Lifting heavy objects can be resumed after three weeks. Most patients require no follow up after the removal of stitches.