These days, if you’re not quite ready for surgery but still want to take a few years off of your appearance or at least banish some wrinkles, you can turn to fillers. The same might seem to be true when it comes to nasal surgery. A liquid rhinoplasty might seem like an ideal, temporary alternative to surgical rhinoplasty. But is it? While a liquid nose job might be a good option for some people, it’s not going to correct all of the same issues that a surgical nose job will correct.
Learn more about liquid rhinoplasty and see if it’s a good pick for you or not.
What is Liquid Rhinoplasty?
During a liquid rhinoplasty, your surgeon uses injectable fillers to fill in areas around a bump on your nose, to elevate the tip of the nose or to make a smaller nose larger. While a non-surgical nose job will correct some issues with the nose, it’s not going to be an effective option for all people. For example, the fillers won’t make a large nose smaller. A non-surgical rhinoplasty is usually only effective at treating smaller bumps or at correcting mild degrees of crookedness. If you have a very large bump, augmenting it with filler might not make it less visible but might make your nose look dramatically larger.
Often, the filler used during a liquid rhinoplasty is one made from hyaluronic acid, such as Juvederm. Some surgeons might use more permanent fillers, such as ones made from collagen.
What Are the Benefits of Liquid Rhinoplasty?
The big benefit of liquid rhinoplasty, at least for the right candidate, is that it lets you try out a nose job without fully committing to it. For example, if you have a small bump on your nose and a surgeon uses Juvederm or a similar product to fill in around it, you can get an idea of how you’ll look with that bump smoothed out. If you don’t like it, you can wait for the filler to wear off or, in the case of hyaluronic acid fillers, ask for another injection which will dissolve the hyaluronic acid.
The other big benefit of liquid nose jobs is that they take a lot less time than surgery. Depending on how much filler the surgeon needs to use, the entire treatment might take less than 30 minutes. Unlike after nasal surgery, you don’t have to take a week or so off from work. Many people go back to their regular lives right after their injections.
What are the Risks of Liquid Rhinoplasty?
The big risk for a liquid nose job is this: choosing the wrong person to perform the injections. Although you’re not having nasal surgery, it’s important to choose a surgeon who has plenty of experience performing nasal surgery and rhinoplasty. That surgeon will have full knowledge of the anatomy of the nose and its structures. That knowledge is essential to making sure you get a natural-looking result from your liquid rhinoplasty.
Along with choosing a surgeon who’s experienced with rhinoplasty, you want to work with someone who has plenty of experience with injectable fillers and liquid rhinoplasties. Although fillers are often presented as less risky cosmetic treatments compared to surgery, they have their own risks, especially when performed by an inexperienced injector.
How Long Will Results Last?
How long the results from a non-surgical rhinoplasty last depends in part on the type of filler used. Most hyaluronic acid fillers will create results that can last for several months. If a thicker filler like Juvederm Voluma is used, the results might last for a year or longer.
There are also longer lasting fillers out there, such as Bellafill, which is collagen-based. Using a more permanent filler might be an option, but it might also make more sense to pursue a traditional rhinoplasty if you want something permanent.
What’s the Cost?
Liquid rhinoplasty is technically less expensive than surgery, at least initially. The cost of fillers tends to be lower than the cost of surgery. But a non-surgical rhinoplasty can end up being more expensive in the long run, at least if you decide to repeat the treatment as the fillers wear off. Instead of paying one amount once for surgery, you end up with a repeating annual or semi-annual expense.
So which is the better option: surgery or fillers? It all depends on you. If you’d like to learn more about rhinoplasty, Dr. Michael Schwartz, a double board certified facial plastic surgeon in West Palm Beach, Florida, can answer all of your questions. Call 561-228-5888 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Schwartz today.