Fixing a Prior Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty San Diego, CA Dr. Kearney is an accomplished plastic surgeon, double board-certified in plastic surgery and general surgery. He has performed hundreds of facial surgeries in Florida and California in his career.

Among those are numerous revision nose surgeries where patients have come to Dr. Kearney after having an unsatisfactory surgery performed elsewhere. Rhinoplasty is a complicated, delicate surgical procedure, and it demands a combination of surgical expertise and an eye for aesthetic appeal.

If you’re unhappy with your nose surgery, Dr. Kearney can help.

What is revision rhinoplasty?

The reasons patients come to Dr. Kearney for revision rhinoplasty are varied. It can be functional, as the previous surgery has somehow occluded the nasal passages. It may be for cosmetic reasons such as the bridge sagging. Some people may have had as many as five or six prior surgeries.

Revision rhinoplasty can be more demanding than the original procedure. Tissue and cartilage grafts can be required to provide the required mass needed for the procedure. In some cases, Dr. Kearney finds that the nose needs to, in effect, be rebuilt.

How is this done?

As is the approach he takes with every surgery, Dr. Kearney treats each case of revision nose surgery as a completely unique situation. Some of these surgeries can be straightforward, where the patient simply wants some additional bone or cartilage removed from the nasal bridge. Maybe the tip remained more bulbous than they were hoping.

Or they can involve a complete rebuilding of the nose. In these cases, the previous surgeon removed too much tissue, cartilage, or bone, leaving the patient disfigured. Revising these prior mistakes can require surgeries lasting up to four hours. These surgeries may require tissue grafts harvested from the ear, ribs, or temple regions to restore the necessary amount of cartilage, bone, and fascia. In these types of revisions, the skin and soft tissue can be a limitation due to previous scarring and a developed resistance to expansion. In these cases, it’s important to have realistic expectations.

To make the necessary changes, Dr. Kearney usually finds the open method to be necessary because it allows better access to the structures that may need grafting or rebuilding. Open rhinoplasty is done through an incision on the skin under the nose between the nostrils.

It’s important with all cosmetic surgeries to do your research into your surgeon, but this is even more the case with rhinoplasty. Dr. Kearney is a double board-certified plastic surgeon. That’s the kind of experience needed for these procedures.

Are you unhappy with a previous nose surgery? You don’t have to live with it. Call Dr. Kearney at (858) 677-9352 and set up a consultation for revision rhinoplasty.

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