I’ve been talking about the liquid facelift for some time, where various fillers such as RESTYLANE® and JUVEDERM VOLUMA® and VOLIFT® are used to lift the cheeks and jowls without the help of a scalpel or anchoring stitches.
The newest trend in plastic surgery is a technique that was born out of the liquid facelift: the Liquid Nose Job — aka a non-surgical rhinoplasty procedure, which I am excited to be offering at my Toronto plastic surgery practice.
Liquid nose job refers to the use of our excellent facial fillers such as JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE to augment the nose and correct asymmetries… But there is more to it when in my hands!
An important component of this treatment is SAFETY. Risks of blood vessel and skin injury are present and for this reason, nose injection with fillers should be done by a qualified surgeon who is cognizant of the facial anatomy (plastic surgeons get a minimum of 5 years of surgical training POST medicine to learn anatomy and techniques, something family doctors, dermatologists, and nurses do not!).
One of my favorite techniques — and a safer way to perform the liquid nose job — is with the use of sterile surgical cannula. I wrote an excellent blog post on my cannula technique should you want to learn more about this novel approach.
So when considering a liquid rhinoplasty, what can fillers do?
1. JUVEDERM VOLBELLA® can augment the dorsum of the nose, the saddle deformities, and the concave noses. It is also very helpful in increasing the size of the nose, something many of my Black and Asian patients often request.
2. JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE can also correct a mild deviation of the nose by injecting on the smaller/thinner side, shifting the midline of the nose to the true facial midline.
3. JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE can decrease the nostrils by injecting the fillers gently in the nostril ‘alar” rims, bringing down the margins of the nostrils.
4. Fillers can be used to augment the tip by injecting in both the tip area and at the base of the nasal septum over the maxilla to create a supporting buttress.
5. VOLBELLA can also be used to create the arches between the nose and eyebrows, something often requested by my Asian patients.
6. Mild asymmetries post rhinoplasty can often be corrected easily with fillers, without downtime.
7. Although JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE cannot remove a hump over the nose, they can increase slightly the volume ABOVE and BELOW the hump, efficiently
camouflaging or embedding the hump and giving a straighter line to the nose dorsum.
8. Dermal fillers can also be used to augment the ‘nasion’, the deepest part between the nose and the forehead (the area commonly treated with BOTOX®) in order to achieve a more Roman nose, especially for my male patients.
What can’t fillers do?
1. JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE can’t correct a septum deviation and therefore won’t help with breathing difficulties.
2. JUVEDERM and RESTYLANE can’t remove a hump on the nose, although they can help in camouflaging it, as described above.
3. Dermal fillers can’t reduce the size or the projection of a nose.
4. RESTYLANE and VOLBELLA can’t reduce the size of a nostril.
My take-home message here is that fillers for the nose are a tremendous advance in our non-surgical armamentarium but should be done carefully and safely.
Ready to learn more about what the Liquid Nose Job can do for you? Contact us today and let’s talk!