How did we lose?
Mängisch ds no destiny 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. Noever has been a plastic surgeon for over thirty years and “does” about fifty noses a year at the private clinic Pyramide am See. But under his care, overly long noses are not simply cut with a knife as in Mani Matters Chanson.
As soon as his patients are placed under general anesthesia, Noever cuts open the bridge of the nose. This is the piece of skin between the nostrils. The nasal skin then bends upwards and the “frame”, that is, cartilage and bones, is exposed. Noever does not use a file to file small bumps on the bridge of the nose, but this is rarely enough. Often the bones are broken and small pieces of cartilage are inserted into the nose.
Noever puts the skull model back on the shelf. He is sitting in his office in Zurich, looking at the lake. During the operations, only the structure of the nose changes, and the skin adapts itself in the following months. The operation takes an average of two hours. Nose surgery is one of the most complex areas of plastic surgery. Every millimeter plays 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 was bothering them in their nose before surgery,” Noever says. Usually a hump or a very swollen nose tip is the problem. Many customers have been bothered by this for years. No one has yet shown 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 crooked nasal septum, both are operated together.
If Noever can’t understand the problem in question, he takes pictures of the face and draws it in proportions and angles that make it look more cohesive. He says if he can’t understand a problem, he doesn’t do the action. “Then it’s not the nose. Then the problem is between the ears.”
Noever has done well with his own nose so far. “Though these two cartilages are smaller here,” he says, stroking the tip of his nose. Because like the ears, the nose also grows in the flow of life. However, nose surgery has never been an option for the surgeon.
Selfies enlarge the nose by 30 percent
It is located in the middle of our face, in our nose. It can smell in stereo, did you know that? Both nostrils detect different olfactory signals. This is how our brain creates an “olfactory map” to orient itself.
We can wrinkle our noses, give them a good nudge, poke fun 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 one major reason we still put 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.
In addition to «mobile phone pronunciation», filter programs on Instagram or Tiktok also change our ideal of beauty. In the past, such transitional programs were expensive and were practically only available to cosmetic surgeons. You can enlarge your eyes and lips and narrow and shrink your nose on almost any smartphone today. There would be a discrepancy after such a modified selfie was posted. “The desire to look like that in reality is much more pronounced,” says Borkenhagen. It is technology that defines our ideals of beauty today.
Also, thanks to video conferences in the days of Corona, we would often face our own faces and we could save money during the pandemic by eliminating holidays and events. Borkenhagen says: “The disappearance of someone from the scene a few weeks after the operation was unnoticed at the time.”
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. To get rid of this stigma later, leather wings were sewn onto their faces after they were released.”
In the 16th century, nasal surgeries were also used to overcome stigma: the children of children whose parents had sexually transmitted syphilis often suffered from the so-called “nasal syphilis.” 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, planting protruding ears and shrunken noses. Breaking a taboo: “Even then, plastic surgery sparked great social controversy because it interfered with healthy bodies,” says Borkenhagen. “This was inconsistent with medical ethical standards.”
Meanwhile, nose surgeries have become socially acceptable. But Borkenhagen is not afraid that soon all noses will look the same. “It depends on the doctor – but most nose surgeries are individually tailored to the faces involved.” However, he acknowledges that the procedure is again stigmatizing: The more noses are operated on, the more likely those who cross the line will be noticed. Those who don’t want to go under the knife. Or those who cannot afford the expensive procedure.