We all have that one thing that we would like to change about ourselves – weight, height, hair color. For 35-year-old Olivia Kraus – it was her nose.
“When I see my nose I’m not satisfied because I see this dent and crack in it,” Kraus said. “I don’t like it.”
Kraus worried that it was a problem that would only worsen with age.
“My father has the crack in his nose and it has drooped as he’s gotten older,” Kraus said. “So I live in fear about how it’s going to progress.”
Kraus said she was always scared to get a nose job because it would be permanent. So when a friend told her about a non-surgical procedure to fix the crack in her nose, she decided to go see Dr. Eric Schweiger, a dermatologist in New York City.
“It’s a procedure that can be done in about 15 minutes,” Schweiger said. “The patient comes in and has an identifiable issue with their nose, like a bump or a downward turning of their nose, and we use filling material to correct that problem.”
After applying a topical anesthetic, Dr. Schweiger injected a filler, called Radiesse, into Kraus’ nose. The filler is made of a protein that commonly found in human bone.
“We can physically mold the filler when it’s under the skin into the place that we want it to be,” Schweiger said. “We also put a little bit of Botox in the muscle that kind of pulls down the nose – and that, in about five days can kind of help push up the nose.”
Not everyone is a candidate for the procedure and possible side effects, which typically go away within five to seven days after the procedure, include bruising and swelling. The results are not permanent, Schweiger said, which means most patients will have to come back in for touch ups every nine months to a year.
Kraus, however, believed the results were worth it.
“The crack is gone and it looks really good,” Kraus said. “I can't wait to see how it progresses over the next couple of days. But if it stayed the way it is right now I'd be really happy.”
For more information or for a photo consult, log onto SchweigerDerm.com.