I had surgery 8 years ago with silicone and ear cartilage, and my original nose was a bit bulbous with a low bridge. Since last year.. my nose had been getting uncomfortable periodically, so I started looking into removal. Sometimes I had throbbing pain, a foreign-body sensation like the silicone was pressing on the bridge of my nose, and when I slept on my side, it felt like my nose was being pulled to one side. A few times I got through the crisis by taking antibiotics, but I was terrified something would go wrong with my nose...
#Surgery details They removed all of the silicone and ear cartilage, and also removed the capsule. They repositioned the tip cartilage, and since I said I hated my nose spreading too much, it seems they adjusted it well on their own. Before surgery, I felt they disinfected everything very thoroughly, and while I was briefly asleep under sedation, they gave me local anesthesia and started the surgery while I was awake. They said the bridge had been shaved down a bit, and because the two sides were different in height, the doctor refined it a little. (I could hear the grinding sound..) Oh, and my first surgery was closed rhinoplasty, and they said they would remove it closed as well, so it was removed closed. They made bilateral incisions inside the nostrils. They stuffed both nostrils with cotton, then put on a splint and taped it, and that was it.
#Visit the next day after surgery I went to the clinic the next day, they removed the cotton, and the doctor came to check the wound inside my nose and said it was clean. They showed me photos of the silicone, ear cartilage, and capsule they removed, and I took the silicone home. They did not remove the splint, just disinfected it and I left.
#Splint removal on day 5 after surgery They said they would remove the splint and tape on the fifth day after surgery, but the day before it looked like the splint might fall off So I asked the manager, removed the splint, and put it back on myself with some medical skin-colored tape or something like that.. But when I took the splint off and saw my nose for the first time, it really looked like someone had cut away the bridge from the front, like half my nose had disappeared and my nose looked square and stupid, seriously... I was so shocked I really thought that was what removal would look like and almost cried... The next day when I went back to the hospital, the manager reassured me that it was all swelling and told me not to worry at all, which I appreciated, but I was still really anxious about whether it was truly swelling or whether my nose had really turned square But the manager explained well that the bridge would get a bit narrower, that the swelling was also on the sides of the bridge, and that both sides of the nostrils were swollen because they made bilateral incisions inside, so I felt a bit more at ease... The manager is really, really kind. Everyone else was kind too
#Appearance at 2 weeks The swelling at the time of removing the splint really made my nose feel square, but by one week after surgery, it had gone down a lot. It kept going down little by little every day.. now it’s been 2 weeks, and compared to when the splint came off, it’s gone down a lot. Even the bridge feeling broad and square was all swelling. The bridge line has also come up a bit more nicely.. When I look at other reviews, they say the nose looks prettiest at 1 to 2 weeks because of the bridge swelling.. For me, as the days go by, it feels like the bridge is coming alive more? so that’s a bit surprising.. Especially the height of the tip is almost no different from when I had the surgery. The dorsum is a bit flatter and lower than when I had silicone, probably because the silicone is gone and the bridge had also been shaved down. Looking today, it seems like the nostrils may be showing a little, or maybe the contraction phase is coming, I’m not sure yet^^; But right now it really is higher than my original nose, and the shape seems better too.. I’ll write another review next time about the shape. As the swelling goes down, it really settles into shape just like the manager said.. actually, as the swelling went down, the nose line got better. But I’m also wondering if it only looks better because of the remaining swelling
I spent a whole year just worrying about removal. I was so scared of taking things out, and I kept worrying whether my nose would never go back to my original nose and whether it would become terribly ugly. My original nose was also so long ago that I could barely remember it... I work at a company, so taking a long break was hard, and I was worried people might notice.. I worried a lot about the shape too, like whether the bridge had been shaved down too much, whether my nose would look too spread out, and so on. I read almost all of the review posts, and some of them I read two or three times, and every day after work I couldn’t sleep until dawn while reading those posts.. I don’t know what I was doing, it was really hard
I went to consultations at the three clinics that are famous here, and at a few other places too. Some places said that if I remove my nose, I’d feel a big sense of loss so I should do revision surgery instead. But I thought that even with revision surgery, you never know when side effects might come back, so I chose removal, and I think it was the right choice. I spent a lot of time torn between two clinics right up until the end, and the one I chose was here, and I’m satisfied!! Actually, they seem to take even better care of you after surgery than during the consultation And the really great thing was that I didn’t get any bruising at all!! I bruised a lot after my first surgery.
After removal, my boyfriend asked why I had worried about it for so long, saying it barely showed at all.. he said the tip was almost the same as before removal. The nose feels much more comfortable than when I had silicone, and I’m glad the pressure is gone. Oh, and I had pretty severe cartilage show at the tip of my nose, but looking now, it’s improved by about 90%! I heard cartilage show continues to improve gradually. Once the bridge between my eyes lost that prominent line from the bridge of my nose, people around me said I looked more approachable;;; People at work haven’t noticed at all...;
I meant to keep this short, but it got really long;; If you’re worried about removal, don’t worry too much. If you’re curious about anything not written in the main post, I’ll answer.