Rhinoplasty — with Tummy Fat?

Plastic surgeons in England and a few other places are offering some nose surgery procedures with fat taken from fleshy abdomens.

(The same technique can be applied to breast augmentation. Read our blog post about breast enlargement with fat.)

If the technique should become more widespread, that would mean some nose surgery techniques could be done, not with scalpels, but with needles.

Here’s how it works:

The plastic surgeon takes some of your own fat from areas where you can spare it – perhaps your tummy or thighs. In plastic surgery, it’s a fairly new and growing specialty known as autologous fat transfer.

The fat is then carefully prepared.

It goes into a centrifuge, a device that whirls the fat around in a circle to separate blood, anesthetic and other fluids from the donated fat; it’s known to cosmetic surgeons and plastic surgeons as lipoaspirate.

Next, the surgeon gives the patient a local anesthetic and fills his syringe with the prepared fat cells. The surgeon can then:

• Flatten bumps on the nose
• Make crooked noses appear straighter
• Widen tiny noses
• Fill depressions on the nose

However, large noses cannot be made smaller. Only nose surgery can do that.

Plastic surgeons can also perform the same treatments with fillers like Juvederm, Radiesse and Restylane although those substances are absorbed by the body in 12 to 18 months. While the body may absorb some fat, most is permanent.

Unlike rhinoplasty in which bone or cartilage is added, moved or rearranged with the patent asleep under a general anesthesia, injection nose surgery offers:

• Less cost
• Quicker recovery
• Minimal bruising
• A return to work in several days for patients

Nose-job with fat patients must not touch their noses or wear spectacles for seven days.