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Facial Plast Surg 2020; 36(01): 046-052
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1701628
Original Article
Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

The African Rhinoplasty

Kofi D.O. Boahene
1   Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
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Publication History

Publication Date:
19 March 2020 (online)

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Abstract

Across ethnicities, patients seeking rhinoplasty have similar goals—a natural looking nose that fits and complements the rest of their facial features. Beyond a harmonious nose, patients of African descent have a particularly strong desire for ethnically congruent results in spite of individual aesthetic rhinoplasty preferences. This strong appeal for ethnically sensitive alterations is fueled by the desire to maintain physical identification with one's African ethnicity. There are psychosocial penalties when rhinoplasty outcomes stray toward complete racial transformation. Consequently, rhinoplasty in patients of African descent requires a fundamental understanding of acceptable beauty norms, associated psychological underpinnings, as well as unique facial and nasal features among Africans. Beyond these ethnically sensitive nuances, classic rhinoplasty techniques of framework modification with cartilage contouring, grafting, and bone remodeling are applicable in reshaping the African nose.

Keywords

African rhinoplasty - African American rhinoplasty - ethnic sensitive rhinoplasty