A Nose As Unique As You Are

Kim Kardashian West made waves this past year when she claimed, in the magazine Wonderland, “I used to hate this bump on my nose. Hated it. Now I love that it makes me look more ethnic.” While the verdict is still out on whether or not the most famous Kardashian has gone under the knife (she swears she hasn’t and her changing look is due to her contouring skills), it is clear that keeping an ethnic look to your nose is “in” if the trend-setting Kardashians have put their stamp of approval on it.Just like Kim, more and more patients are realizing that the cookie-cutter noses many plastic surgeons seem to specialize in don’t or won’t look good on them. No matter how “perfect” a nose looks on its own, if it doesn’t match the rest of the face or the body it is attached to, it will look bad. There is a definite artistry to plastic surgery that concerns far more than the body part being operated on. The patient as a whole, not just the body part the patient wants modified, is the canvas.Dr. Tobias has been saying this for years, and even pioneered some of the ethnic rhinoplasty techniques that are being used today by the doctors of patients who want to preserve or recreate some of the ethnic features of their noses. He understands that you should not be forced to abandon your heritage and culture in order to get an attractive nose. He works with ethnic patients to preserve the beautiful aspects of their noses while doing away with imperfections like bumps, hooks, droopy nasal tips, or nostrils that are too narrow or excessively flared. He has also done corrective surgeries on patients who were dissatisfied with the westernized nose they were given by a past surgeon, and wanted to bring back a more ethnic look.The idealized nose of the past, the Greco-Roman nose found on many classic sculptures, should stay where it belongs – in museums. The modern nose is one that compliments rather than distracts from the face. We are a diverse world and we must celebrate that diversity.