Rhinoplasty Techniques to Narrow a Wide Nose

One common goal during a nose job in Charlotte is to narrow a wide nose.  This is commonly a complaint in ethnic rhinoplasty including African American rhinoplasty patients.  When I examine a nose for its width, I want to see a gentle curve starting from the eyebrows going to the crease of the nostrils.  The nostril width should be about the same distance wide as the space between the eyes.  If this curve is not gentle or the nose is wider than the space between the eyes, then narrowing the nose during a rhinoplasty may be a good option for the patient.

The nose is most commonly narrowed by two techniques, alar base reduction and breaking the nasal bones (nasal osteotomies).  Alar base reduction is used to narrow wide nostrils.  Tissue has to be removed from the nostrils, so incisions have to be made on the skin.  I hide these incisions in the crease of the nose, so they are not noticeable.  This can be a powerful procedure to narrow the nostrils.

The width of the nose above the nostrils is not due to excess tissue, but secondary to wide nasal bones.  The only way to narrow this area of the nose is to break the bones. After breaking the bones, their position can be moved to narrow the nose.  This is routinely done in my rhinoplasties in Columbia and Charlotte. Breaking these bones may increase swelling and bruising after the nose job, but the results are worth it.

One final trick used to narrow the nose is to make the nose stick out farther from the face. A nose that is too close to the face is rounder and less triangular.  When the nose is viewed from the front, the round nose looks wider than it actually is.  If the nose is made less rounded and more triangular, then it will appear smaller than it actually is.  It is similar to viewing a tee-pee from the sky.  If a tee-pee is laying flat on the ground it will look round and wide.  If you put a pole in the middle of the tee-pee and make it into a tent, it will look smaller and narrower.  In some patients, the addition of a nasal projection to make the nose stick farther out from the face is the most important part of the rhinoplasty, making the nose appear more defined and narrow.  This is commonly the case in African American nose jobs in Charlotte.

Dr. Jonathan Kulbersh is an ethnic rhinoplasty specialist.  He is a board-certified doctor who trained with the best surgeons in Beverly Hills.  He has offices in Columbia and Charlotte serving all the Carolinas.  He specializes in facial aesthetic surgery.