Thick Skin and Rhinoplasty
Some people have thick skin and are concerned as to how that will affect their rhinoplasty. To assuage some of your anxiety, it is your thick skin that protects you somewhat from having an “overly-operated” look. A tiny nose is not likely to happen and the truth is that in order to give you tip definition [catch light in a manner that looks defined and narrow] on the front and oblique views, you need to have a sophisticated restructuring of the tip cartilage to give it strength to take up the slack of the thick skin. Try this experiment: Take your finger nail and put it under your shirt or coat sleeve and stretch it out till you see the nail defining itself through the fabric. Your skin is a fabric as well. The thicker the fabric…the more tension you must put on your finger to get the nail to thin and define the fabric. A Northern European thin skinned tip can have cartilage reduced and the skin will redrape and follow the new contour. The thicker skinned African, Asian, Mediterranean, Hispanic, etc. tips will just become more amorphous with the same approach. Therefore, you need to discuss with your surgeon the need for perhaps increased projection and support of your tip as well as perhaps augmentation of your bridge which will narrow the gestalt of your nose. By the way, you don’t need to have the scar of an open rhinoplasty.