Nonsurgical Rhinoplasty

During liquid rhinoplasty, your practitioner will inject target areas of the nose with dermal filler (most often hyaluronic acid fillers) using a fine needle. The bridge of the nose is often the target of the injections, since there’s less risk of accidentally hitting an artery. Between injections, your practitioner will massage the nose, manipulating the filler until the desired shape is achieved.

Liquid rhinoplasty can help correct nose asymmetry and profile issues to make the nose look more balanced and proportionate.

The nose reshaping treatment can help make the nose appear straighter, correct bumps on the bridge, make it less hooked, lift a downward-pointing nose tip and fill in depressions. The treatment can also heighten the bridge and alter the width of the nose.

Liquid rhinoplasty is less of a commitment than surgical rhinoplasty since the results are temporary, and other factors like downtime, cost, side effects and risks are also reduced - all added benefits.

As with lots of other dermal filler treatments, hyaluronic acid fillers are the most popular and commonly used type of filler for liquid rhinoplasty, including the brands Restylane and Juvéderm. This type of filler is temporary and will be metabolised by the body.

The treatment time of this nose reshaping procedure is pretty short. The treatment itself usually takes less than 15 minutes, with an additional 20 (ish) minutes on top of that for the numbing cream or anaesthetic to take effect (if one is used).

The injected material may be felt for a long period of time after the procedure. Common side effects include erythema, edema, pain, tenderness, and itching. Reactions at the treatment site usually resolve within 24-48 hours and swelling within a week

As with most aesthetic treatments, there is the potential for some side effects with liquid rhinoplasty. You should expect a little bit of bruising (arnica cream can help with this), swelling and redness after the treatment and maybe even some bleeding at the injection sites. The area might also feel a bit tender afterwards. The good news is, though, that these side effects shouldn’t last long (roughly a few days). If these symptoms persist, contact your practitioner for advice.
More serious liquid rhinoplasty risks can occur, such as occlusions (when filler accidentally blocks a blood vessel). But, these are rare - especially if you choose a medically qualified practitioner.

One of the biggest perks of liquid rhinoplasty is that there’s no downtime afterwards. You’ll be able to go about your day as usual straight after the nose filler treatment.

Everyone’s pain tolerance is different, so this one’s a bit harder to answer. But, generally, liquid nose job treatments can cause a bit of discomfort. But, some form of anaesthetic (numbing cream or local anaesthetic) will likely be applied before the treatment to numb the area and help minimise pain. Lots of fillers also have lidocaine in them - an anaesthetic which will further reduce discomfort.

After liquid rhinoplasty, there are a few things that you should avoid for roughly 1-2 weeks. These include wearing glasses and having facials or other skin treatments as they can interfere with the filler before it’s fully set.

For 1-2 days after the treatment, you should avoid touching the injected areas, wearing makeup, exercising and being exposed to heat (like saunas).

If you want to reduce the size of your nose, liquid rhinoplasty is not the treatment for you. Fillers can plump out points of the nose to alter its shape, but they can’t make the nose smaller. It’s also important to remember that non-surgical rhinoplasty is best for making minor changes and alterations to the nose, rather than delivering drastic differences.

If you have an allergy to any ingredients in the filler, it’s important that you don’t go through with the treatment. And injections are not recommended if your skin is swollen, infected or irritated.

Liquid rhinoplasty is also not recommended if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.

Each person will metabolise filler at a different rate, but when hyaluronic acid-based fillers are used, liquid rhinoplasty results typically last for 6-18 months. At this point, you can have the treatment repeated if you want to.