A crooked nose can distract people’s attention from your eyes, hair, or lips to the center of your face and cause them to focus on your nose. Although the nose sits in the center of your face, it should truly disappear into the face and go unnoticed. I have found that when it comes to different aspects of the nose that most people dislike, a crooked nose becomes the most distracting to others.

Correcting a crooked nose can be challenging. There is a misconception that a crooked septum can lead to a crooked or canted nose. This is not the case. A crooked nose does not mean that you have a deviated septum and vica versa. I have seen many case where the septum is deviated one way and the nose is canted the other. In these cases, the external framework (nasal bone and external cartilages) of the nose may be canted one way while the septum is deviated another direction.

Paramount is to assure the septum is straight when attempting to address a crooked nose. Next, a proper assessment of the nasal bones is imperative and straightening these with osteotomies or controlled fractures is necessary. The cartilage in the middle portion of the external framework of the nose must be made symmetric or depressions filled in. Lastly, the cartilage in the tip must align with the midline and appear symmetric.

I tell all my crooked nose patients that their nose will be perfectly straight on the operating room table. However, cartilage has memory, and may want to move back to its original position despite grafting and suture placement. I always explain that long term, your crooked nose will utlimately be STRAIGHTER and if it stays perfectly straight, even better!

Dr. Funk is a board certified Houston facial plastic surgeon and rhinoplasty expert performing nose surgery on patients from Houston, Katy, Memorial, and Sugarland.