Can you nasolabial angle be changed or the way the nose relates with the upper lip?

This was a question a patient had regarding the relationship the nose was taking with the upper lip and how the angle was more obtuse. He wanted it more acute:

Yes, your nasolabial angle can get more acute after yourRhinoplasty. This can happen when you interrupt forces that hold your nasal tip up. The exposure that you do can also interrupt forces that hold your tip up. Trimming the top of the tip cartilages and interrupting the connection between the tip cartilages and the lateral cartilages higher in your nose can also cause your tip to descend and decrease the angle.

Also, interrupting the connection of your tip with your septum can also contribute to this drop in your tip and affect the nasolabial angle. The way to prevent this is less trimming of the tip cartilages and the usage of sutures to shape the tip. You also have to make sure to reconstruct the forces that hold the tip up through septal sutures that connect the tip with the septum. A graft in the area under your tip that extends from your tip to the top of your upper lip can increase the nasolabial angle and help maintain it.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Comments are closed.