Rhinoplasty for Broken Noses
Facial bones that are most frequently broken are found in the nose. Broken noses are seen among all age groups because there are so many ways to break them — playing, sports, accidents, fights and falls.
Swelling can cause the nose to appear crooked and broken, however, until the swelling goes down it may difficult to tell if the bones are actually broken. Symptoms of a broken nose include: severe pain, swelling, bruising around the nose and eyes, crooked or bent appearance of the nose, uncontrollable bleeding or running, blocked nasal passages, difficulty breathing through the nose or a grating sound or feeling when the nose is touched or rubbed.
Following is a list of possible complications of a broken nose:
• Permanent difficulty breathing
• Infection of the nose, sinuses, or facial bones
• A permanent change in the appearance of the nose
• Constant drainage from one or both nostrils
• A deviated or crooked septum
• A hole in the nasal septum (septal perforation)
• Collapsing of the bridge of the nose (saddle nose deformity)
• A large amount of blood trapped in the nasal septum (nasal septal hematoma)
• Loss of smell
A broken nose may have injured bone, cartilage, nerves, skin or mucosa (nasal lining). To restore the appearance of the nose, these may need realignment. In most cases doctors recommend applying ice right away to reduce swelling and pain medicine such as Tylenol to ease the pain.
Most doctors will wait a few days for the swelling to go down before surgery. Most surgical procedures take place 7-14 days after the break. If the patients wait too long after the break, the procedure will be more difficult. Surgery is performed to fix the fracture, however doctors will not be able to make the nose symmetrical on individuals who have suffered prior injuries or distortions.
After the nose has healed, rhinoplasty, or surgery on the nose may be necessary to fix deformities and facial alterations caused by the broken nose. Although rhinoplasty improves the appearance and proportion of the nose, it is not used solely for cosmetic purposes.
Rhinoplasty is also used to correct impaired breathing caused by structural abnormalities in the nose. After the procedure is completed, a splint, internal tubes or packing will likely be placed inside the nose and a splint or bandages placed on the outside to support and protect the new structures during initial healing. It can take months for swelling to go down and up to a year for the outcome to fully refine.
The results of rhinoplasty are usually permanent, however, cartilage may continue to reshape and move tissue which may change the outcome overtime.
