Rhinoplasty is a concept that includes many different techniques to change the shape of the nose. Some patients need to work with the bone part of the back, others with the cartilaginous part, and the third with the soft tissues of the tip of the nose. Often there is a need for correction of columella. And what is it, how this part of the nose is corrected and what effect can be achieved with the help of surgical intervention, you can find out by comprehensively considering this issue.
Columella - what is it?
The columella of the nose is the part of the skin located between the nostrils. Anatomically, the columella includes the medial crura of the alar cartilages, but they are not visible visually. Sometimes it is called a column or column of the nose.
This small fragment of the nose performs a number of important functional tasks in the normalization of the breathing process. By supporting the tip of the nose and maintaining the optimal lumen of the nostrils, it allows you to freely inhale and exhale air. This means providing the body with oxygen, which is involved in all biochemical processes.
What should a columella look like?
Small areaskin, called the columella of the nose, plays a huge role in the perception of the nose as a harmonious part of the human face. A beautiful columella should have the following qualities:
- its width should not exceed 5-7mm;
- the angle between the nose and lip should be about 100 degrees for women, 95 degrees for men;
- the column should not sag;
- when looking at the face from the front, the columella should be located lower than the wings of the nose;
- nostrils should be symmetrical.
If these rules are ignored, any rhinoplasty will not be successful. The nose will look disharmonious, and the person may go for a second plastic surgery. While in other cases, a simple correction operation can give a more pronounced result.
Columella problems
What are the problems with columella to require nose plastic surgery - rhinoplasty?
Based on how the ideal size and shape of a columella should look, we can identify the problems that potential patients of a plastic surgeon most often face:
- sagging nose column;
- columella too high;
- the angle between the nose and the lip is too large, or vice versa, small.
A person may regard his nose as too wide, with a curved tip, snub-nosed. But in order to correct the appearance, it is not necessary to do complex and traumatic operations to change the shape of the back or its tip. Enoughjust change the nose column.
Non-surgical correction
If the nose column is small, that is, the angle between the nose and lip is increased, and there the nose looks snub-nosed, or the columella stalk and nose wings are located at the same level, you can use non-surgical rhinoplasty.
Its meaning lies in the introduction of a special preparation under the skin - a filler, which increases the volume of tissues. As a result of this, the columella of the nose becomes larger, and the nose itself looks harmonious. During the procedure, the doctor injects the filler into the columella in the required volume through the needle. The intervention causes a minimum of pain, but if desired, you can use an anesthetic injection.
The advantages of the method are:
- minimum recovery period;
- small duration of the procedure;
- no need to do tests and functional studies before the procedure.
The main drawback of the method is its fragility. The duration of the effect depends on the drug that was injected into the soft tissues of the columella: a more viscous gel will be retained in the tissues longer. But it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of a person.
The safety of the method is great, but relative: the introduction of any substance into the body can become a catalyst for pathological processes, for example, exacerbation of chronic diseases, the development of autoimmune diseases. In order to avoid such consequences, you need to undergo a medical examination and consult withyour doctor.
Surgical correction of columella
If the columella is large or sagging, the only corrective method is surgery.
But the methods used by the surgeon when performing the operation may be different. Correction of the columella of the nose should be discussed by the doctor and the patient before the operation, so that the operated person is as satisfied as possible with the result.
The easiest way to reduce columella is to excise the soft tissue and, if necessary, the adjacent cartilage. Understanding how the nasal septum is connected with the columella, we can conclude that in some cases it will be necessary to reduce the length of the septum itself, and only then tighten the columella.
During the preparation period, the doctor decides which operation technique will be more justified in a particular case: raising the nasal column, or deepening it to create a harmonious angle between the nose and upper lip.
For patients who are not satisfied with the temporary solution of the problem in the form of a biogel injection in the cosmetologist's office, there is a way to permanently maintain the result with the help of surgical intervention. In this case, we are talking about lowering the columella or filling the columnar labial angle.
For this, cartilage implants can be used, which are installed in the columella region in order to lengthen the nasal septum. The implant is fixed with suture material.
Columella change during rhinoplasty
The goal of a plastic surgeon is not only to correct a specific defect, but also topreserve the overall harmony of the nose and face, and make it as simple as possible. Sometimes the columella of the nose has an irregular shape, but working with it will not make the face beautiful, but, on the contrary, will make other features more obvious.
Therefore, sometimes, to correct the nasal column, the doctor can make a volumetric correction, based on the structure of the nose of a person who has come to the plastic surgery clinic. The doctor can change the tip of the nose, lift it higher, thereby pulling up the columella. Sometimes rhinoplasty is effective, when the surgeon moves them higher, so the column, remaining in the same place, becomes visually lower.
Therefore, preparation for surgery is a productive collaboration between the patient, who must explain what result of the surgical intervention he wants to see, and the doctor, who knows the structure of the nose and the person and understands what results and what methods can be achieved.
Do I need anesthesia?
The need for anesthesia during surgery is determined by the amount of work that will be carried out by the surgeon. If the doctor plans to simply excise excess tissue, thereby raising the nasal column to the required height, local anesthesia can be used. For large-scale surgery, it is better to use general anesthesia.
The advantages of anesthesia in rhinoplasty can be identified by at least two arguments:
- the patient, being in a medical sleep, does not experience excitement, is not able to make involuntary movements, in other words, to prevent the surgeon from performing"jewelry" work on his face;
- under general anesthesia, the need for the use of local anesthetics is reduced, so the doctor gets the opportunity to work with “living” tissues, and not with various drugs that have been injected.
To find out if anesthesia is needed in a particular case, it is better to consult a doctor. Evaluating the scale and duration of the proposed work, as well as the degree of pain of manipulation, he should recommend to the patient the most suitable option for a particular operation.
Preparation for surgery
Rhinoplasty in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia requires a mandatory medical examination of the state of he alth before the intervention. To do this, there is a list of laboratory tests and functional studies.
| Analysis | Benchmarks | Validity period |
| Complete urinalysis | All | 14 days |
| CBC | All | 14 days |
| Blood chemistry |
Total protein CreatinineCholesterol ALT ACT Bilirubin Urea Potassium Sodium |
14 days |
| RW (syphilis) test | 60 days | |
| Hepatitis testing | 60 days | |
| HIV test | 60 days | |
| Blood clotting test | fibrinogen, PTI | 14 days |
| Electrocardiogram | 14 days | |
| Fluorography | 1 year |
In addition, opinions from the attending physician and, in the presence of chronic diseases, a specialist physician may be required.
Rehab
How long the rehabilitation after rhinoplasty will last depends on many factors: the experience of the doctor, the extent of interventions, the patient's he alth, the thoroughness of all the surgeon's instructions.
On average, the tissue healing time for nose surgery is two weeks. But if the doctor corrected only columella, a person can return to normal life after 2 days.
Helpful tips
It is quite possible to reduce the risk of unsuccessful intervention if you remember a brief reminder for a plastic surgeon's patient.
- Choosing a doctor is half the battle. It is important to choose a specialist who will have experience in correcting noses with such aesthetic defects. Of course, finding such a doctor for rhinoplasty in Moscow or another big city is much easier.
- Colds, emotional and physical, should not be allowed before the operationstress.
- After the operation, you need to give the body time to heal tissues, carefully following all the recommendations of the surgeon.
Rhinoplasty is the most common plastic surgery in the world, performed by people of all ages and genders. And there is a reason for this: it is the nose that is called the part of the face, which to a greater extent affects the beauty of a person. Therefore, even slightly changing the structure of a person's nose, you can achieve a beautiful result.
