A Nose For Beauty
Posted: Monday 2 January 2012 04:29pm
Layla is an author in her late 30s who, despite being much-admired for her looks, hated her nose. She had a rhinoplasty with Dr Warwick Nettle, of Sydney’s Silkwood Medical.
It was a nose passed on by generations of Romans, it was the nose that got me teased at school, and it was a nose I hated. It wasn’t so much big, but bumpy. But it wasn’t till I was 38, that I decided to get a nose job. I felt the time was right.
After seeing three surgeons, I decided to go with Dr Warwick Nettle, from Bondi Junction’s Silkwood Medical. As a qualified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, he wasn’t just experienced, but professional, reassuring and refreshingly honest.
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He ran through the risks, from DVT (deep vein thrombosis) to bleeding, and stressed that although rhinoplasty is the most common form of plastic surgery – it also has the highest revision rate. From 10-15 per cent of patients have second operations to make a few tweaks.
My main concern that I was going to ruin my looks. I wanted a smaller nose – but I still wanted to look like me.
Dr Nettle took photos of my nose side on and demonstrated with computer imagery how my new nose could look. Straighter, smaller and more feminine. And the bonus? It still looked like me! I was sold.
Seems like I was the only person that was sold, 99 per cent of people I told, from friends to family, were dead against it. “There’s nothing wrong with your nose!” “Oo you’ll ruin your face,” and “You will be in so much pain,” were just a few of the comments.
A few months later – after much fretting of whether I was doing the right thing, and almost picking up the phone to cancel – it was the day of the op. I’d gone beyond nerves – now replaced with excitement. New nose, new me!
My old "Roman" nose (left); everyone says my face looks softer and younger with my "new" one.
The operation itself was around two hours, and I had a general anaesthetic. The procedure itself was pretty complicated – Dr Nettle performed rhinoplasty, septoplasty and turbinectomy – which basically means he removed the hump, and made the tip and bridge smaller.
When I woke up, I had a bag of ice over my face and what felt – and looked like – 2 tampons up my nose (to catch blood) and everything was held together in a splint. I felt no pain, just discomfort – which I had been warned about. As my nose was bunged up, I could only breathe through my mouth, and that was challenging at first. I spent the first night in hospital, took a few painkillers, and felt surprisingly okay.
I was expecting far worse bruising and swelling, and like Dr Nettle said, it would get worse (day 3 was probably the worst) before it got better. I kept icing the area and spraying Arnica under my tongue to ease bruising.The packing came out on day 2 and swelling subsided dramatically after 5 days. The stitches, inside and under the tip, was dissolvable (thankfully). The splint came off after 6 days and the bandages 5 days after that.
And that was a pretty exciting moment! Dr Nettle passed me the mirror and I couldn’t believe that perfect (if a little swollen) nose belonged to me!
It’s been 3 weeks now, and I am 100 per cent delighted with the results. Those who tried to convince me not to do it are now saying how much softer my face is, how much younger I look and how subtle a job Dr Nettle did. It cost me around $9000 (only some of which I can claim from Medicare).
It’s amazing that a very slight change has made such a big difference. My advice? Shop around for the surgeon you feel most comfortable with, do your homework and don’t plan anything for a good week after surgery – except rest!
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