Nose Surgery: The Structure of the Nose

Nose Structure: Bone

The human nose is constructed with a combination of bone and cartilage. In the diagram to the left, the portion of the nose made of bone is illustrated in yellow. Notice that only the upper portion of your nose is made of bone. Illustrated in blue are the different cartilages that combine to give the nose structure. As you can see, the majority of your nose is made up of these different cartilages.

Nose Structure: Cartilages

In the previous section, we established that the majority of your nose is constructed of different cartilages. Now let’s take a closer look at these different types of cartilages and what each of them do. To the right we have a diagram that illustrates Upper Lateral Cartilages in purple, the Lower Lateral Cartilages in green, and the Nasal Septum in red.

Upper Lateral Cartilages- The Upper Lateral Cartilages(ULC’s) is shown in purple, and connects the tip of the nose(green) with the bone(yellow).

Lower Lateral Cartilages- The Lower Lateral Cartilages(LLC’s) is shown in green, and constructs the tip of your nose. The shape, orientation, and thickness of the LLC’s are among the primary factors that give the tip of your nose its unique shape.

Nasal Septum- The Nasal Septum is shown in red, and it is the long piece of cartilage “sandwiched” between the ULC’s. It divides your nose into right and left sides. Occasionally a persons Septum is crooked. This is often referred to as a “Deviated Septum”, and can cause breathing difficulties and aesthetic imperfections. The procedure to straighten a persons Septum it is called a Septoplasty, or “Deviated Septum Surgery”.

From these pictures you can see that by each person having cartilage and bone with different shapes and sizes, their noses will be different.

Nose Anatomy and Terminology >