Cleft Septorhinoplasty

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a cleft septorhinoplasty or at least I think that is what it is called. These are all photos within the last year taken with my phone. So the right side of my face will appear on the left. I’m not to worried about the deviated septum. I was wondering about possibly making the right nostril smaller and making both nostrils look symmetrical. Possibly pull the nose towards the right a little as well. I think that might also hide the septum a bit too. Let me know what you think. Thank you very much! 

A: Thank you for sending all of your pictures. Cleft noses are the hardest of all rhinoplasties to do and you can’t just ‘piecemeal’ it, meaning do one small thing on the nostrils for example and they will turn out better…because they won’t. There are so many anatomic aberrations in the cleft nose that you have it to do a complete cleft septorhinoplasty procedure and go for trying to fix everything about it. Even then ideal symmetry and shape will never be obtained. But it takes a full septorhinoplasty effort in the cleft nose to even make small improvements as the tissues are deranged and abnormal.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana