The universal nose of early childhood: nature's aid in understanding the supratip deformity and its correction.

Abstract

The noses of the babies of the world are strikingly similar despite race. Overresected noses have the same characteristics as babies' noses for exactly the same reason: in both cases the nasal skin is relatively unsupported by its underlying skeleton. Teaching rhinoplasty is a most difficult task, but nature offers valuable help in understanding the delicate balance between nasal skeleton and skin sleeve. Nature transforms the "universal nose of early childhood" into an adult nose by gradually augmenting the nasal skeleton, thus showing us the way to correct the iatrogenically overreduced nose.