Closed rhinoplasty leaves no visible scar but limits what the surgeon can see; open rhinoplasty adds a four-millimetre columellar incision and full access to the tip.
The choice is decided by how much tip work your nose needs, not by surgeon preference. Closed rhinoplasty works entirely through incisions inside the nostrils and suits a straightforward hump reduction with a tip that already sits well. Open rhinoplasty adds a four-millimetre incision across the columella, the strip of skin between the nostrils, and lifts the skin so the cartilage framework can be seen directly. That visibility matters when the tip is asymmetric, over-projected, or has been operated on before.
The incision that worries patients most is the one that disappears fastest. It sits in a V or stair-step across the narrow bridge of skin between the nostrils, an area with excellent blood supply and no tension pulling the edges apart. At three months most patients cannot find it in a mirror without tilting the head back; at a year it is usually a pale line most people never notice. Redness in the first eight weeks is normal and settles without treatment.
Closed rhinoplasty remains our choice for a defined group: a prominent dorsal hump with a tip that needs little more than a small refinement, thin to medium skin, and no previous surgery. Keeping the tip ligaments intact means less swelling, and the nose settles noticeably faster in the first three months. What it cannot do is give reliable control over a deviated or asymmetric tip, and forcing it there produces the results that later need revision.
We decide from photographs and an examination, not from what you ask for by name. If your tip is symmetric and your main complaint is the profile, we will say a closed approach is enough and we will not charge more for the open one. Rhinoplasty here is €2,900 whichever route is used; the technique is a clinical decision, not a price tier. Revision cases and thick-skinned tips are almost always open, and we explain why before you fly.
No. Both are €2,900 at our clinic and include the surgery, general anaesthesia, one night of hospital care and the follow-up. The approach is chosen from your anatomy, so pricing it differently would create exactly the wrong incentive.
Yes, and we discuss that possibility in the consent form beforehand. If access through the nostrils proves too limited to place tip grafts accurately, converting is far better than accepting a compromised result.