Correcting a Bump on the Nose Through Rhinoplasty

Hello, I’m Dr. Michael Sullivan, facial plastic surgeon at the Sullivan Center for plastic and cosmetic surgery in Columbus, Ohio. I specialize in Rhinoplasty Surgery. Welcome to whiteboard Wednesday. It’s the Sullivan Center series on Rhinoplasty and today we’re going to talk about the bump on the nose.

What is it? Well when patients oftentimes refer to the bump, it’s that upper portion, the bridge of the nose which is made up of cartilage and bone which is overdeveloped. Sometimes that’s the result of injury, oftentimes it’s just something that we inherit from our parents.

When I do surgery to remove the bump on the nose, I’m removing some of that cartilage and bone. I have an illustration of the nose from the base here. So when you’re looking straight up here’s what you see. The nostrils on either side, in the midline we have what is called the nasal septum, that’s what separates the right side of the nose from the left, and then on the sides it’s the nasal bones. Think of it like a pyramid.

When I do surgery to remove the bump, what I’m doing is, I’m removing that top of the pyramid, taking off this upper portion of the bone and cartilage here and then we make a little control break in the bone here to allow the nasal bones to come back in on either side. And that’s what reduces that bump and it brings the sidewalls back in, so we get that nice curve of the skin over top of the bone.