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When I had my rhinoplasty last August, I never imagined that I would be taping my nose every single night for almost a year following my surgery, but it was for good reason. Nose taping can help reduce swelling, promote proper healing of the nose and allow the skin to conform to newly shaped cartilage. Since being diligent and dedicated to my medical tape, over the past couple of months, I\u2019ve started to see pre-cut nose-taping kits pop up on my social feeds and in PR packages I\u2019ve received as a beauty editor. The catch\u2014they weren\u2019t so much for post-rhinoplasty patients, but for taping your nose each evening so that by morning, it would appear more sculpted and smaller.<\/p>\n
Curious, I dug deeper. Similar to the \u201cAccutane Nose Job\u201d, taping your nose sans rhinoplasty was going viral as a way to give yourself a sort of \u201cmini nose job.\u201d Because this simply seemed too good to be true (and considering everything I had to go through to actually permanently get a smaller nose), I spoke with doctors to get their take on whether this trend has any merit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After a surgical rhinoplasty, taping your nose nightly is a temporary compression technique used to minimize swelling, prevent fluid buildup and help the skin settle over newly structured cartilage. \u201cPost-surgery taping acts as a compression garment to manage post-surgical fluid buildup,\u201d explains San Francisco facial plastic surgeon\u00a0David W. Kim, MD, California. Depending upon your anatomy, post-surgical results and surgeon, it\u2019s advised to wrap your nose for several months or up to a year post-rhinoplasty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside of rhinoplasty, there is no good scientific evidence that taping your nose every night can permanently reshape it or act as a \u2018mini nose job\u2019 as seen on social media,\u201d says Palo Alto, CA facial plastic surgeon Steven Curti, MD. Taping it, he explains, can help compress soft tissue, making the nose look smaller, but this effect is temporary and does not lead to any permanent change. Though there\u2019s no harm in taping your nose sans rhinoplasty, especially if you’re prone to swelling, just don\u2019t expect long-term results. \u201cSimilar to wearing compression socks, it can help, but the effect will last for hours, not weeks or months,\u201d he says. At best, what you\u2019re doing, Dr. Kim says, is \u201ctemporarily displacing normal fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n
As with many social media trends, some are worth the hype, and some aren\u2019t\u2014the latter being the case here, but with a caveat. The \u201cmini nose job,\u201d as it’s been referred to, can help to counteract the effects of edema or swelling caused by excess fluid. If you are someone who is prone to swelling, be it from allergies, hormonal imbalance, sleeping flat or traveling, taping your nose can help to reduce excess fluid in the area and, in a way, make the nose appear smaller briefly. Taping the nose simply pushes out fluid, making the nose appear smaller for a brief period of time. \u201cIt alters the skin’s water weight, not the nose’s actual architecture,\u201d says Dr. Kim.<\/p>\n
Dr. Curti says that the smaller appearance is more evident in the mornings when people tend to have more gravity-induced swelling. The nose will look slightly more sculpted, but within minutes to a couple of hours, circulation returns to the nose and the \u201cmini nose job\u201d disappears, explains Dr. Kim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe internet loves a quick fix, but anatomy is anatomy. Your nasal shape is formed by bone and structural cartilage. A piece of tape simply does not possess the same mechanical force required to remodel human cartilage. If it did, sunglasses would permanently change the shape of our noses, too,\u201d says Dr. Kim.<\/p>\n
Though it can help with swelling, there are some negative side effects to taping your nose, including skin irritation, increased risk of acne, redness and clogged pores.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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