Characteristics of Each Type of Implants

Implants used for nasal surgery are basically the products with
low tissue reaction, safe, and approved by Food and Drug
Administration. It is better to limit the use of implant on the bridge
of the nose rather than the tip of the nose. Each type of prosthesis
has advantages and disadvantages. Thus, it is necessary to decide
the type of prosthesis to be used through adequate consultation
before the surgery.

  • SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY  HOSPITAL
  • SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY VERITAS LUXMEA

TOPCLASS Rhinoplasty - Implants

1 Silicone
Silicone is the most commonly used implant that is relatively safe when it is inserted in the body for a long time. It also has lesser rejection reaction and it can be trimmed into a desired shape so that it is used a lot. Recently, High-soft Silicone (Bistool Silicone) that is as soft as Gore-Tex and not see-through was developed and used the most often.
2 Gore-Tex
Originally used for surgical materials for heart valve or blood vessels and it adhere to surrounding tissues adequately that it maintains its shape as it was implanted. The material is soft but it is difficult to modify.
3 Silitex
Silitex has advantages of both Gore-tex and silicone. It maintains the shape as silicone while it is not see-through as silicone since the outer surface is covered by Gore-Tex. It rarely becomes crooked at the same time. However, connecting part can be separated upon modification and elaborate modification might be hard according to the shape of the nose bridge.
4 Artificial Dermis
Artificial dermis compensates for Gore-Tex that becomes lower as time goes by and it is easy to modify. However, changing in height by times has not been yet completely improved and it is prone to cause inflammation.

Autologous Tissue

It is better to use soft autologous tissues for the tip of the nose when carrying out nose surgery.
Such autologous tissues include auricular cartilage, septal cartilage, and rib cartilage and dermofat and temporal fascia are
added to maintain more natural shape.

  • Septal Cartilage
    Septal cartilage is a board-looking cartilage
    located between both nostrils and inside
    diaphragm. It is generally used for
    augmenting the column of the nose tip since
    it has a shape of a board.
  • Auricular Cartilage
    Auricular cartilage is softer than septal
    cartilage and has curved shape that creates
    natural nose tip shape.
  • Rib Cartilage
    Rib cartilage is used to create more prominent
    and refined nose tip and when septal cartilage
    is too small or atrophy had appeared.
    Both autologous rib cartilage and rib cartilage
    harvested from other people can be used.
  • Dermofat
    Dermofat is generally used for too thin skin on
    the nose and to improve the side effects due
    to several/illegal surgery and inflammation.
    It is generally harvested from armpit or hip area.
  • Fat
    Fat can be harvested from abdomen or thigh
    area to augment flat nose. It can also be
    injected to depressed area without removing
    silicone after the surgery.
  • Fascia
    In order to improve the crooked implant or
    severe case of visible implant, covering the
    implant with fascia gives softer and full look.