Can Your Nose Tip Drop After Rhinoplasty? Causes & Cure

Rhinoplasty enhances nasal features and corrects defects. Like any procedure, it comes with certain doubts for example: “Can your nose change after rhinoplasty”? Or “Can your nose tip drop after rhinoplasty?”

You can surely witness subtle changes after rhinoplasty because of inflammation that fades with time. However the results of rhinoplasty depends on your commitment to after-care.

In this article you’ll read all about nose tip drop after rhinoplasty.

Nose Tip Drop After Rhinoplasty: Myth Or Reality?

Among elderly people, the nose tip skin slides downwards to the lips. This decreases the angle between the nose and lips, called “nasal drooping”.

This nasal drooping also relates to rhinoplasty. After the nose job when swelling subsides, healing starts, incisions contract and raises the nasal tip tissues creating an illusion that your nose tip has dropped.

This confirms that nose drop after rhinoplasty is real and not a myth.

💡Your nose can droop about 5 to 10 degrees downwards postoperative. Any drop greater than that is a surgical complication.

What Are The Causes OF Nose Tip Drop After Rhinoplasty?

Nasal tip drooping depends on your healing potential, surgeon’s technique and expertise. Enlisting some causes:

• Surgeon Technique & Expertise – The surgical technique used can cause temporary nose drooping due to tissue manipulation during and swelling after the procedure. Nasal tip drooping is also a common complication when your surgeon lacks experience.
• Healing Speed – Healing period vary for everyone. So people who heals fast can have less nose drop as compared to the ones with slow healing.
• Anatomical Point – Your nasal skin and the bony structure are responsible for the nose drops after rhinoplasty. Anatomical causes include:
  • • A heavy nose tip.
    • Weak cartilage unable to support the reshaped nose.
    • The depressor septi nasi muscle which moves the nose downwards.
• Unhealthy Habits – Smoking and other unhealthy habits often alter the outcomes of rhinoplasty affecting the nose tip.
• Effect of Gravity – Gravity can have its effect on the nose causing it to shift downwards. This especially occurs when the skin is thin and has lost its elasticity.

Impact Of Age On Nose Tip

For people under 40 with thin skin, no significant changes occur to the nose tip following rhinoplasty. But for people over 40, skin sagging may cause noticeable nose drooping.

Usually the nose tip drop occurs after four to six weeks when your incision starts to heal. It can also take a year to show the actual results of the rhinoplasty for thin skin while 2 years for thick skin.

• Pre Surgery Analysis – Your surgeon should evaluate all the following factors before performing rhinoplasty:
  • • Gravity’s effect
    • Strength of your nasal cartilage
    • Ratio of how much your incisions will contract
• Appropriate Technique – Using tongue-in-groove or septal extension graft for rhinoplasty prevents changes in the nose tip. Also the surgeon can make the nose tip upturned so that later when it falls it gets back to its normal position.
• Post Op Follow Ups – Strictly attend follow ups so your surgeon can timely address any undesirable results.
• Aftercare Routine – Follow your aftercare routine like resting more and sleeping with elevated head, avoiding any sort of physical and exertional activity. Also avoid any sort of trauma and pressure to the nose this also includes wearing spectacles.
• Exposure From Sunlight – Avoid exposure to UV light and sunlight. UV rays have the tendency to affect the elasticity of the skin so it can alter the settling of the nasal tip.

What To Do In Case Of Excess Nasal Tip Drooping?

In case of excess nose drooping, you will need a revision rhinoplasty. This surgery is done with a gap of a year from the first rhinoplasty so that all the swelling has faded.

Your surgeon will select the graft by analysing the nasal droop to achieve the desired results.

How Long Does It Take To Recover From Nasal Drooping?

Your recovery duration depends on the cause for the nose drop. If its mild means normal postoperative drooping then it usually subsides after 3 to 6 months.

But if it is due to some structural weakening or defect, after revision rhinoplasty, it may require 6 to 12 months.