What Is African-American Rhinoplasty?

Today’s blog focuses on rhinoplasty in patients of African origin. This is a very difficult term to properly define and despite terms such as “Asian rhinoplasty,” or “African rhinoplasty,” each patient is a unique individual and requires a unique surgical plan.

In my rhinoplasty practice in St. Petersberg, FL, we see many African-American patients desiring improvement in their nasal profile and aesthetics. My goals are to maintain ethnic congruity and facial harmony by improving many of the already-elegant features of the patient’s nose. Let’s now discuss some of the common requests during consultation, nasal aesthetics, and surgical techniques involved!

Common Ethnic Nose Job Requests

How can I make the tip of my nose smaller?

The nose may be too wide for the patient’s liking or amorphous (lacking structure). Thinning of the thick nasal skin will help define and soften the tip in many patients. Also, maneuvers to increase the projection of the nose can also help define and refine the nasal tip in African American patients.

How can I fix my flat nose?

The nasal bridge may be flattened or appear lower on the profile view. For the bridge, if there is a hump or irregularity, then we can shave this down and smoothen it in the operating room. If the bridge of the nose needs to be augmented, often rib cartilage is used as there may be deficient septal cartilage to do this adequately

Can you fix a wide nose?

This is usually an issue of the nasal base of the nose (the ala) being too wide. Commonly we reduce the width of the nose with incisions out on the side using a technique called alar base reduction. This, when done in an elegant way, can refine and further slim the tip of the nose

During the rhinoplasty patient’s consultation, we sometimes simulate how the nose might look after rhinoplasty. This helps the patient visualize how rhinoplasty might change their nose or verbalize more clearly how they want their nose to look. You can learn more about the nose job simulation process in a related blog post.

We have come a very long way in terms of providing our rhinoplasty patients with elegant, subtle, and natural-looking results. You can see some of our patients’ actual results in their before and after pictures.

Getting Started

If you’re looking for the best plastic surgeons in St. Petersburg, FL, to perform your nose job, we invite you to discuss your rhinoplasty goals with Dr. Narasimhan, a rhinoplasty specialist who is board-certified in both plastic surgery and ENT. You can request a consultation online or call us at (727) 289-7119 to schedule an appointment.