Rhinoplasty

At his facial plastic surgery practices in Alpharetta and Dunwoody, Dr. Robinson prefers the open rhinoplasty technique which requires one tiny incision along the base of the nose.

DR. ROBINSON: Rhinoplasty is basically surgery to change the appearance of the nose. Some people call it a nose job, but it’s truly called a rhinoplasty, traditionally it was done all through what we call a closed technique. All the incisions were done inside the nose. But in the last 20-25 years, we have learned that we can get a much more predictable result by doing what’s called an open rhinoplasty, which we do the majority of the time, at least in my practice, which involves one tiny incision just along the base of the nose. It forms a fine line scar which is very hard to see. I always joke with my patients and tell them, only your dog looking up will ever see your scar. It heals beautifully. We’ve had plenty of patients who are models have come through this practice and they have that tiny scar and it’s never been a problem with their shoot. The problem with rhinoplasty in the past was it was all done one way. They just created a big scoop, turned up the nose and said you should be happy. And we really individualize rhinoplasty so much more than we used to now to fit the patients face. And we get a much more predictable result by having that better exposure just because of that one tiny incision. On average the procedure takes about an hour and a half to maybe two hours. The procedure does not have that much down time. It used to in the past but it’s really about a week that you’re down. That means you have a splint on your nose. I tell everybody, you are back out in a week doing whatever you normally like to do, but you might need a little makeup to camouflage a little persistent bruising. It is overwhelming, when I first started practice; I was a little confused because occasionally you would have a rhinoplasty come back a week later. You’d take off their splint and they’d look at the nose and they’d shed a couple of tears. And I used to think they weren’t happy with the result. And then they would come back six weeks later for their next follow up exam and they were totally happy. And I’ve come to realize it’s such an emotional release because you’re nose is something you were born with. It’s not an aging issue. And so you think about maybe all the peer ridicule, all the self conscious issues that occurred growing up through your development years, your high school, college and beyond. And now to finally have that gone is a huge emotional release. And so it’s actually tears of joy. So I think it’s one of the most gratifying things that I do and really enjoy doing it.