Rhinoplasty (nose aesthetic surgery) is one of the most frequently performed plastic surgery operations in young individuals under the age of 18. But just like your mother said, just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it the right option for you. So, what factors affect whether a young person under the age of 18 is a good candidate for nose surgery?
Growth factors
The most important reason why plastic surgeries are very rarely performed in pre-adult age groups. This is because the body is still developing physically during these years. Planning plastic surgery too early may mean poor long-term results. For example, we would never place a breast prosthesis on a young girl whose breast development has not yet been completed.
However, the situation is slightly different in rhinoplasty, because the nose reaches full maturity years before the rest of the body. Typically around age 15 or 16, the nose reaches a significant percentage of its adult size. The exact age will vary depending on many factors, but an experienced rhinoplasty specialist should be able to give you a definitive answer during your consultation.
Rhinoplasty surgery can stop the nose from growing when performed during the growth phase. Growth arrest is an important problem, especially in male patients. Because the development of facial bones in men continues actively until the age of 24-25 under the influence of the testosterone hormone. While the nose obtained at the age of 15 is of normal size compared to the face at that age, at the age of 25, when the other bones of the face have grown and the nose has not grown, the male patient's nose may remain small compared to his face. Small noses create a feminine expression and are not preferred by men. For this reason, only in male patients under 18 years of age; If the nose is too large in volume even for an average adult male face, surgery may be necessary. The common feature of all young male patients who we operated on at the age of 15-16 with family approval was that they already had very large noses. Even if you have a nose, a "small nose" is a feature that many women dream of and desire. Nose in young girls too We want the baby's growth to reach a certain stage, but the limits are a little more flexible than in men.
Permanence of surgery results
Although it is accepted that the growth of the nose generally stops after nose surgery, this pause It does not occur similarly or symmetrically in every individual and every surgical technique. For example, nasal bones may continue to grow in surgeries in which only the nasal tip cartilages are intervened. A patient whose nasal tip cartilages were thinned with rhinoplasty (nose tip aesthetics) technique at the age of 15 may come back at the age of 20 and say, "After the surgery, a hump formed on my nose, I did not have such a problem before the surgery." What happens here, simply put, is that the parts of the nose that were not tampered with during surgery continue to grow in their natural phase. Sometimes after surgery, one of the nasal bones may grow slightly larger than the other, and this may lead to irregularities on the nasal dorsum and bending of the nose. In summary, after surgery performed at an early age, your nose may not remain as it was. In order to prevent this situation from occurring, I prefer total roof dissections, in which all growth centers are treated equally, rather than limited dissections in the surgeries of adolescent patients. By the way, "dissection" means the separation of tissues from each other in surgery.
Affecting sports / course success
Respiratory problems caused by trauma to the nose can affect individuals who engage in sports/activities that require high performance at a young age. may affect. In cases where functional problems in the nose affect sleep quality, school success, concentration during the day, sports performance, or trigger septum-related headaches or recurrent sinusitis attacks, nose surgery may not be a pleasure aesthetic procedure but may become a medical necessity, in which cases surgery can be performed at an earlier age. It is possible to do it.
Traumatic deformities
Deformities resulting from a serious accident or trauma may need to be treated at an early age. Some nasal curvatures will not improve with age and, on the contrary, will make the patient's life increasingly difficult. Since there is no benefit in waiting in these situations The necessary medical intervention can be given at an earlier age.
Emotional maturity
In addition to physical maturity, there is also the question of emotional maturity to consider. Rhinoplasty is a permanent change in the physical appearance of a young individual. It is not possible after the surgery to say that I am bored with this model and switch to another model. An emotionally mature teenager who knows what he is doing can accept permanent changes in his body in a way similar to adults. My advice for parents is to make sure their child has realistic expectations about rhinoplasty and is otherwise physically and emotionally stable. Although nose surgery can have a positive effect on the adolescent's body image, a new nose will not improve, for example, a bad emotional relationship. Especially in the high school environment, young individuals may be exposed to the cruel criticism and sarcastic attitudes of their friends. Young individuals who will have rhinoplasty must be able to maturely respond to negative or positive feedback from the social environment and must have reached the maturity level to construct their self-perception independently of the opinions of other individuals.
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