What is Rhinoplasty?


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Rhinoplasty is a medical procedure that is performed on the nose and is more commonly known as a nose-job. It is performed on both men and women and in 2008 was the most common procedure to be performed upon men. In America alone around 50,000 operations are performed each year amongst all strata's of society. Those who have the most operations are young people in their teens, twenties or early thirties, though there are still significant numbers of patients who are older. However, despite the youthfulness of many of the patients, it is generally preferred by surgeons to wait until you have stopped growing before performing any Rhinoplasty operation. Rhinoplasty consists of altering the shape of the nose and can be done for a number of reasons; the most common being medical such as if a person has problem breathing or a disfigurement from birth or caused by an accident, other times its performance is purely cosmetic. This means that it is being done because the person having the procedure is in some way unhappy with their own nose and wishes to change its physical structure to make it suit their face better. In both cases the surgery can consist of either lengthening the nose or shortening it, or change the shape of the nostrils, tip or bridge. It has been made famous by numerous celebrities who have opted to have it done in recent years, most famously Michael Jackson and the (fictional) character of Rachael in Friends. Depending on the surgery you have the visible changes to your face can vary from small to significant.

Cosmetic versus Clinical Rhinoplasty

There are two main types of plastic surgery; cosmetic and clinical and you need to know the difference between the two. The main difference is not so much in the procedure, but is instead in the reason for having a procedure. In a nutshell, cosmetic surgery is when the patient decides that he or she wants the surgery for cosmetic reasons, i.e. they do not like the look of their nose in proportion to their face, or it is too hooked. It is more commonly known as plastic surgery. You should be aware though, that while such of plastic surgery is done for cosmetic reasons it is also done when the patient requires the surgery to make the standard of their life better. This type of surgery is called clinical surgery .The most common reason for clinical surgery is if they have a deviated septum that makes it harder for them to breathe. However, clinical surgery is not simply used to correct noses, it can also be used to alter a number of conditions such as burns and other physical injuries and in fact the majority of plastic surgeries that are performed are clinical rather than cosmetic. In this case, the surgery is not being done out of some belief that their nose is wrong to look at, but instead because there is something wrong with their nose and how it works. However, as mentioned above, the procedures are fairly similar.

Rhinoplasty has been used for nearly 3,000 years, and is one of the earliest successful operations known. If it is performed right then it can have a massive effect on your life, boosting your self-confidence and changing something about yourself that you do not like. While there are risks and side effects, you should not allow them to discourage you from getting something done that has the potential to improve your life. It is thought that around 20% of Rhinoplastys require revision, though only around 0.10% of Rhinoplasty surgery has serious complications making it one of the safer procedures you can have done. However, before you decide to have Rhinoplasty you need to remember that you should think hard about what you want to change and you need to make sure that you know what the procedure entails. If you do these two things then Rhinoplasty may by the way for you to go.

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