I’m on day 8 now after having all the silicone in my nasal tip + ear cartilage removed. (Please refer to my previous post for my nose condition and hospital consultation.) Yesterday, on day 7, I had the splint removed and checked the shape. The bridge area looks wide from the front because of swelling, and from the side, the height hasn’t completely dropped. Since my case involved shaving down a dorsal hump and covering it with silicone, I think I’ll only be able to tell whether the area where the silicone was removed is uneven after the swelling goes down. It’s still so swollen that the shape doesn’t seem meaningful, so I’m not uploading photos.
During this surgery, I had all the ear cartilage in my nasal tip removed. But when I looked again at the intraoperative photos, the height of the alar/nasal wing cartilages on both sides is quite different, so there is an empty space on one side. That area was covered and reinforced with ear perichondrium. But I understand that ear perichondrium is only about 1 mm thick and doesn’t provide much support, so I suddenly became really worried that if it gets absorbed or sinks later, my nasal ala might become depressed. It’s roughly like the drawing I attached; the red part is the perichondrium..
The doctor said they removed a piece of ear cartilage that had been strangely attached under the silicone and was worried about indentation in that area, but they didn’t mention the height difference in the alar cartilage.
But I have a fairly noticeable left-right height difference in the alar/nasal wing cartilage, and I’m worried that reinforcing it only with ear perichondrium might sink over the long term.
I’m planning to ask the doctor again when I go to have the internal stitches removed in a few days, but if anyone has had a similar case to mine, with complete removal of ear cartilage from the nasal tip + height difference between the two alae + reinforcement of the empty area with ear perichondrium, and experienced or knows about issues like depression over time, it would really help if you could share.