Performs 50 nose surgeries per year

In what way did it disappear?
Mangisch ds destiny makes schlla
Ne doctorate isch a cho dä
Het e z’längi nose gha
(Mani Matter: “D’nose”)

Georg Noever (68) points to the skull in his hand. There is a deep hole where the nose normally sits. None of them have been plastic surgeons for over thirty years, and at the private clinic Pyramide am See “does” about fifty noses a year. But under his care, overly long noses are not simply cut with a knife as in Mani Matters Chanson.

Noever cuts open the bridge of the nose as soon as patients are under general anesthesia. This is the piece of skin between the nostrils. Then the nasal skin folds and the “frame”, that is, cartilage and bones, is revealed. He never uses a file to file small bumps on the bridge of the nose, but this is rarely enough. Usually, the bones are broken and small pieces of cartilage are placed in the nose.

He never puts the skull model back on the shelf. He sits in his office overlooking the lake in Zurich. During the operations, only the structure of the nose changes, the skin adapts itself to the following months. The operation takes an average of two hours. Nose surgeries are one of the most complex areas of plastic surgery. Every millimeter has a role and has a tremendous impact on the result. After about 12,000 francs, a small scar remains on the bridge of the nose.

20 percent more nose surgeries

Pls! The elevator door of the clinic opens and a patient comes out. Looks like he lost to Mike Tyson in boxing. Bright violets, bandaged nose. Noever says about seventy percent of his clients are women between the ages of 18 and 50. And the number is growing: his team has performed nearly twenty percent more procedures since the start of the corona pandemic.

“Almost all of my patients can tell exactly what’s bothering them in their nose before surgery,” Noever says. The problem is usually a hump or a very swollen nose tip. Many of the customers have been bothered by this for years. No one has yet come up with a photo of Brad Pitt or Gigi Hadid as a template. “What looks good on a face is ultimately very individual.” If there are functional problems such as septum curvature, both are operated together.

If Noever can’t understand the problem in question, he will take pictures of the face and sketch at what proportions and angles it will look more harmonious. If it cannot understand a problem, it says it does not perform the action. “Then it’s not the nose. Then the problem is between the ears.”

So far, Noever hasn’t done well with his own nose. “Though these two gills used to be smaller here,” he said, patting the tip of his nose. Because the nose, like the ears, grows throughout life. However, nose surgery has never been an option for the surgeon.

Selfies enlarge the nose by 30 percent

It sits in the middle of the face, that is, on our nose. He can smell in stereo, did you know that? Both nostrils detect different olfactory signals. This is how our brain creates an “odor map” to orient itself.

We can wrinkle our noses, give a good nudge, poke at someone else’s opportunities, or give someone a good dance. This tooth even decides whether we can smell a person well or not. Among other things, whether we want to sleep with someone. Crazy, right?

Beauty researcher and psychoanalyst Ada Borkenhagen (56) says a major reason why we still get them under the knife more often is the so-called “selfie nose.” We usually take selfies at an arm’s length – this makes the nose appear thirty percent wider and the tip of the nose seven percent larger.

Filter programs on Instagram or Tiktok, as well as «mobile phone pronunciation», are changing our ideal of beauty. In the past, such conversion programs were expensive and could only be used by cosmetic surgeons in practice. You can enlarge your eyes and lips and make your nose narrower or smaller on almost any smartphone today. When such a modified selfie is posted, it would be an inconsistency. “The desire to look like that in reality is much more pronounced,” says Borkenhagen. It is technology that defines our ideals of beauty today.

We also often faced our own faces through videoconferences during Corona days, and during the pandemic we could save money by eliminating holidays and events. Borkenhagen says: “It was unnoticed at the time that someone disappeared from the scene for several weeks after the operation.”

Controversial corner of medicine

The desire to change your own nose existed long before Mani Matter philosophized about it. “Ultimately, it largely determines how we look as the center of the face,” says Ada Borkenhagen. The ancient Egyptians performed the first nose surgeries: “The noses of the prisoners were cut off. They then sewed flaps of skin on their faces after they were released to get rid of this blemish.”

In the 16th century, nasal surgeries were also used to overcome stigma: children whose parents had the sexually transmitted disease syphilis often got a disease called “syphilis nose.” Other people have tried to use interventions to reduce racial disadvantages. But: “Before anesthesia it was not possible to get good results,” says Borkenhagen.

At the beginning of the 20th century, surgeon Jacques Joseph (1865-1934) pushed development in the German Empire, erecting protruding ears and shrunken noses. Breaking a taboo: “Even then, plastic surgery sparked great public controversy because it interfered with healthy bodies,” says Borkenhagen. “This was against medical-ethical standards.”

Meanwhile, nose surgeries have become socially acceptable. But Borkenhagen is not afraid that soon all noses will look the same. “Depends on the doctor – but most nose surgeries are tailored specifically to the faces involved.” However, he acknowledges that the procedure is again stigmatizing: the more noses are operated on, the more likely those out of line will be noticed. For those who don’t want to go under the knife. Or those who cannot afford the expensive procedure.