It’s been almost a year—about 11 months—since removal. My surgical nose had 3 mm silicone in the bridge and ear cartilage at the tip for about 12–13 years. I had everything removed, including the capsule, and the tip cartilage rearranged. It was done open, with an incision through the columella, following the line used for the original open surgery. Everything was completely removed without a support strut or cartilage suturing.
Please refer to my previous post for my condition at the time. Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with the full removal. If I don’t mention it, people can’t really tell I had it removed. My impression changed slightly, and my nose looks softer and prettier.
Honestly, it looks better than my natural nose—perhaps the cartilage rearrangement helped. The bridge became slightly lower than my natural nose, probably because of some erosion from the silicone. It is exactly between my natural nose and surgical nose.
My nose moves naturally. It isn’t 100% flexible like a pig nose, but it’s about 70% possible. I can press and shake it too, haha. The scar is barely visible. It looks just slightly white in the light, but you wouldn’t notice unless you looked closely.
When I lift my nose and look at the nostrils, they are nicely symmetrical. From the front of my face, one side of the nose seems slightly higher, but the nose itself is symmetrical, so I think it’s just facial asymmetry. You can’t tell normally, but it showed in photos, lol.
I don’t think I experienced much contraction, and the shape changed gradually for about three months after removal. Until one month after removal, it still looked as high as the surgical nose, but the bridge gradually lowered toward its original height and the tip seemed to become more compact.
I heard that the nose after waking from anesthesia, before the swelling started, looked similar to the final result after removal. Even so, I should take care of it carefully for several months to get a good result, right?! If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I’ll let you know!!