Can I Get An Injectable Rhinoplasty Before Placing A Cartilage Graft For Radix Augmentation.

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’ve been wanting to get a rhinoplasty for awhile to augment my radix and glabella. My goals are to widen and raise the radix so that there’s a smoother transition between the nose and the brow ridge. Anyway, I have two questions:

1) Will I be able to achieve this through cartilage grafting, and if so, how long a recovery should I expect?

2) I’m hoping to get it done next year. As such, could fillers be injected into the radix and glabella in the interim? It would also serve the purpose of giving me an idea of the kind of augmentation that can be achieved. Also. if fillers can be used, how much filler will actually be required? Thanks!

Injectable Rhinoplasty result Dr Barry Eppley IndianapolisA: The long-term solution to a deep radix is augmentation, albeit done with a synthetic implant or a cartilage graft. There are arguments to be made for either an implant or a graft but I will leave that subject alone for now. If that is the only thing that is being done to the nose, there is a very short recovery since such augmentation can be done through a closed rhinoplasty technique.  If one is uncertain as to how one would look with radix augmentation, one could do either computer imaging or place injectable fillers as a ‘surgical test’. Usually most injectable radix augmentations take about .3 to .4cc of material to create the desired effect. While there are many different type of injectable fillers, one should use those that are composed of hyaluronic acid as these can be placed in the smoothest fashion and the timing of their resorbability can be adjusted based on the specific product used.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana