Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty, sometimes referred to as a "nose job," is a plastic surgery procedure performed to change the shape, size, or proportions of the nose or to improve nasal function and breathing. There are two types of plastic surgery used – reconstructive surgery that restores the form and functions of the nose and cosmetic surgery that changes the appearance of the nose. Reconstructive surgery seeks to resolve nasal injuries caused by various traumas including blunt, and penetrating trauma and trauma caused by blast injury. Reconstructive surgery can also treat birth defects, breathing problems, and failed primary rhinoplasties. Rhinoplasty may remove a dorsal hump, narrow the nostril width, alter the nasolabial angle, or address injuries, birth defects, or other functional issues that affect breathing, such as a deviated nasal septum, internal nasal valve collapse, or external nasal valve collapse. Surgery only on the septum is called a septoplasty.

In closed rhinoplasty and open rhinoplasty surgeries – a plastic surgeon, an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist), or an oral and maxillofacial surgeon (jaw, face, and neck specialist), creates a functional, aesthetic, and facially proportionate nose by separating the nasal skin and the soft tissues from the nasal framework, altering them as required for form and function, suturing the incisions, using tissue glue and applying either a package or a stent, or both, to immobilize the altered nose to ensure the proper healing of the surgical incision.

History

Treatments for the plastic repair of a broken nose are first mentioned in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, a transcription of text dated to the Old Kingdom from 3000 to 2500 BCE.

The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BC), an Ancient Egyptian medical papyrus, describes rhinoplasty as the plastic surgical operation for reconstructing a nose destroyed by rhinectomy. Such a mutilation was inflicted as a criminal, religious, political, and military punishment in that time and culture.