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Steven M. Denenberg, M.D.
Dr. Denenberg's articles on Medium.com.

Rhinoplasty tutorial >> The nasal bones >> page 2
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You have seen the diagram above left before.  The red line in the middle represents the septum running down the middle of the inside of the nose, and the black line represents the side walls of the nose.  The three-dimensional representation is above right.

Since the cross section at left is basically shaped like a triangle, and the three-dimensional diagram looks like a stretched-out pyramid, this main portion of the nose, all of the nose except the tip, is called the pyramid of the nose.  The upper part, which is made of bone and colored blue in the diagram above right, is called the bony pyramid, and the lower part, which is made of cartilage and colored brown, is called the cartilaginous pyramid.

So we have divided the nose into three main sections: The bony pyramid, the cartilaginous pyramid, and the tip.  The cartilaginous pyramid and the tip are both made out of cartilage.


Click on any image in this tutorial to see a greatly-enlarged version
When a hump is taken off of the dorsum of the nose, as shown diagrammatically in the two images above, the profile no longer shows the hump, but now we have  a new problem.  Taking down the hump has created a wide, flat spot along the dorsum.

In order to understand what's going on here, we need to take a closer look at what happens to the skin of the nose when the hump is taken down.



Clear all red checks in the Rhinoplasty Tutorial




All surgery depicted in this essay, except where noted, was performed by Dr. Denenberg