A few years after my first rhinoplasty, my nasal bridge stayed the same, but only the tip gradually felt rounder and lower. From the side, the bridge came down smoothly and then dropped abruptly at the tip; from the front, the tip was broad and flat, making my whole nose look heavy T_T. But I really liked the height of my bridge, so I absolutely did not want it touched.
My biggest concern was that a revision consultation would lead to talk of redoing everything. I looked mainly for reviews where the bridge was preserved while only the tip was refined, and went to High-End. I first told Dr. Lim Ji-hong that I wanted to keep the bridge height as it was and change only the tip to a defined straight line. The doctor said that while preserving the bridge height, the bridge appearing wide from the front would need narrowing with osteotomy, and that the tip should be supported with ear cartilage and costal cartilage and lifted slightly.
I had originally gone in thinking about donated rib cartilage, but after hearing about the size and location of the rib scar, I thought it was manageable and changed to autologous costal cartilage. I also mentioned that one side of my nose was frequently blocked, so we decided to include functional nasal surgery. Since there was no talk of automatically changing everything just because it was a revision, I booked immediately after the consultation.
It has been a little over two months now, and there is still some swelling around the glabella. Still, from the side, the line runs continuously from the bridge to the tip, and the tip that had curled downward is slightly lifted, making it feel as if there is space beneath the nose. From the front, the tip width has decreased, so the bridge line has started to show from the front as well. The bridge height is the same as before, but it is amazing how different my nose looks just from changing the tip lol.
At one point, the swelling went down on only one side first, so it looked crooked for a few days and scared me, but it is fine now. I only had to be careful when sneezing during the first week at the site where the autologous rib cartilage was harvested, and now I feel nothing there. The side that used to feel blocked also has fewer moments of stuffiness than before.
Ten million won is not a small amount of money, but because this was my second time, my feeling that it could not fail this time was stronger. I learned this time that revision surgery does not mean rebuilding everything; what can be preserved may be preserved. Perhaps because my bridge is unchanged, there was hardly any awkward adjustment period to my new nose. I was told the residual swelling at the tip still needs to subside further, so I am waiting for that.