The ideal nasal profile: rhinoplasty patients vs the general public

To evaluate whether patients seeking reduction rhinoplasty hold a different concept of the ideal nose than does the general public, and to determine what features characterize the ideal nasal profile.

Twenty-seven patients seeking reduction rhinoplasty and 15 randomly selected members of the public evaluated a series of computer-manipulated photographic profiles using a pictorial visual analogue scale to rate their preferences for several variables. Center-scale images were created from mesh-warped ("morphed") computer averaging of 12 white women. Differences between the rhinoplasty group and the public group were then compared, as was each group's deviation from the center of the scale.

Both groups preferred narrowly distributed differences from the "average" profile to a high degree of significance. No statistically significant difference was found between the ideal nasal profiles selected by the rhinoplasty group and the public group.

Reduction rhinoplasty patients do not appear to have a different concept of the ideal nose than does the public at large. The ideal nose, as it pertains to the ideal white female profile, has characteristics that differ from a mathematically averaged nasal profile.