A filler is a material injected by a surgeon to augment volume in certain parts of the body. In non-surgical rhinoplasty, surgeons use injectable fillers (such as Juvederm, Restylane, and Radiesse) to modify and alter the shape of a person’s nose without using invasive surgery.

Even though these fillers (especially silicone fillers) have been used for decades to fix minor deformities related to the nose, they are associated with dreaded complications in the long term. For instance, in some cases, it has been observed that the blood vessel may get blocked from the filler injection and cause the tissues supplied by that particular blood vessel to die. In pathology, it is referred as necrosis. As a consequence of this, redness and pain can occur in a patient within hours of injection.

In this regard, it is imperative to seek expert advice immediately to avoid the disastrous consequence of skin gangrene. In cases where the skin has turned gangrenous, it may eventually lead to scarring and disfiguring of the nose. Often, corrective surgery is performed in such cases. This involves moving fresh skin from the face to replace the destroyed skin.

Risks & Complications Associated with Fillers

There are some common complications associated with non-surgical rhinoplasty, such as:

• Bruising
• Scars
• Lumps
• Swelling may occur in the injected area (lasting up to 48 hours)
• Asymmetry: as one side of the patient’s nose can become better than other post treatment
• Prolonged redness in the injected area

However, the surgery can have some critical side effects as well. Listed below are some of the signs of necrosis after rhinoplasty:

• Infection: It is a very rare complication and can become a life-threatening disease like toxic shock syndrome.
• Necrosis of Eyelids: It may even lead to blindness.
• Vascular Compression: If excessive amounts of dermal fillers are used in a surgery, it may cause vascular compression of nose and skin.
• Rhinoliquorrhea
• Brain Damage
• Discoloration of Incisors

Reconstructing The Deformities

In those cases where the previous rhinoplasty went wrong, patients may develop a serious infection, which in turn, may destroy some of their good nasal tissues. By reconstructing the nose from the person’s own body parts (including cartilage from ribs, ear, or skin grafts from thigh area, etc.), a rhinoplasty surgeon can replace the damaged or missing tissues.

Since the reconstruction of nasal tissues is an intricate procedure, it requires specialized knowledge to achieve the desired results. Dr. Tan is the best nose surgeon with in-depth expertise in performing reconstruction nose surgeries.