Changing Your Nose

Studio shot of a beautiful young woman posing against a gray background For better or worse, our noses dominate our faces. If it’s out of balance with the other features of our faces, it can really become a focal point when a person looks at you. This is obviously the case with certain celebrities, pretty much all men, who’ve used bulbous noses to create memorable faces. The actors Jimmy Durante and Karl Malden come to mind. 

But for the rest of us, a nose that has an unwanted bulge on the bridge, flared nostrils, or any other unwanted feature is something we hate seeing in the mirror every morning. 

That’s where nose surgery with Dr. Kearney comes in. He can reshape your nose to create the profile and balance you seek on your face. 

Changing your nose 

Clinically termed rhinoplasty, nose surgery removes, rearranges, or reshapes the bone or cartilage of the nose to correct irregularities. Most years, around 200,000 Americans, both women and men, opt to have rhinoplasty to change their nose. That’s a lot of people who decided they didn’t have to look at the same old nose every day. 

Dr. Kearney doesn’t have “stock” changes that he pushes on our patients, his individualized approach to nose surgery seeks to keep some features that make your nose all yours, removing those that detract. During your consultation, the two of you will discuss your goals, along with what you like and don’t like about your nose. His goal is a natural, balanced result, usually opting for more subtle changes. 

Benefits of rhinoplasty 

These are some of the issues Dr. Kearney can correct with nose surgery: 

  •     Removing a bump on the bridge
  •     Modifying the bridge
  •     Reshaping the tip
  •     Reshaping or resizing the nostrils
  •     Repairing a formerly damaged nose
  •     Increasing or decreasing the overall size
  •     Improving breathing capacity

The procedure 

Thanks to its three-dimensional nature, nose surgery presents special challenges that don’t necessarily arise when simply seeking to lessen signs of aging on the skin, for instance. Nose surgery is complex and delicate. That’s why our patients from across San Diego and Southern California trust their nose surgery to Dr. Kearney’s board-certified expertise and decades of surgical experience. 

Patients are put under general anesthesia for our nose surgeries, as the procedure can be quite involved. An “open” approach is most common. This is the method where the incision is made across the tissue between the patient’s nostrils. It allows more significant changes to things such as overall nose size. If the goal is to reduce the nose size or shape, or to straighten it, the skin covering the underlying bone and cartilage will be separated, allowing the cartilage and bone to be reshaped. Once this has been done, the skin is then re-draped over the surface. Flared nostrils can be narrowed by creating an incision at the junction between the nose and the skin of the upper lip. 

If the situation is right, Dr. Kearney uses the “closed” method where all incisions are made within the nose itself. This method is used when smaller refinements are sought. 

You don’t have to live with a nose you don’t like. Call Dr. Kearney at (858) 677-9352 and let’s talk about changing your profile.

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Tuesday: 9am – 5pm
Wednesday: 8:30am – 5:30pm
Thursday: 9am – 5pm
Friday: 8am – 2:30pm

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