Recently, several “baby boomers”, noticing the passing years, wrote to RealSelf.com, asking what could be done about a nose that seems to be dipping down toward the lips when they smile.
In the picture of actress Glenn Close on the left, notice how age tends to affect a nose tip, even on a beautiful face. As you can see Father Time has been at work – as he has for us all – and the tip of her nose has drooped closer to the lips in the 2012 picture.
Those baby boomers (that’s everybody born between 1946 and 1965) and Ms. Close need not feel like only the lonely. A drooping nasal tip on an older person is fairly normal. And, yes, something can be done about it, given a well-trained, highly experienced master nasal surgeon.
In particular, a certain bugbear muscle – the depressor septi, located at the base of the nose near the nostrils– pulls the nose down when the person smiles. During nose surgery, virtually all nasal surgeons separate that problematic muscle from its base, while attending to the other tasks of nose rejuvenation.
Those patients also often undergo refinement of the nasal tip, using various techniques including taking out a small amount of tip cartilage and using tip suturing methods to narrow and refine the patient’s nose.
While the normally aging nose is, or appears to be drooping, that nose also tends to develop more humps on the nasal bridge. Yet another task for the nasal surgeon is inspecting and repairing the inside of the nose to make sure sufficient oxygen can pass through on its way to the lungs. So, those patients often have during the same surgical session:
- Deviated septum surgery
- Turbinate reduction
Nasal skin also becomes a bit thicker with aging. The type and condition of skin, in turn, affects the outcome of rhinoplasty. (Read more about nose jobs and your nasal skin.)
Because healing is a factor in normal aging, a total come-back can take a little longer for long-in-the-tooth patients.
Also affecting healing in the older nose are:
- Allergies
- Diabetes
- Previous nose surgery
- Sun damage
- A history of smoking
Other requests from older patients wanting rhinoplasty were usually heard during consultations with the 24,136 men and women 55 and over who had rhinoplasty during 2011, the most current year for which statistic are available from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Generally speaking, older patients want subtlety, not the radical changes in noses so often seen in 20-something patients. Often, older patients have rhinoplasty in connection with neck sculpture, face lifts and eyelid lifts.