Current thoughts on implants in rhinoplasty.

Since the birth of modern rhinoplastic surgery in the early 20th century, most attention has been directed to the reduction rhinoplasty with ever improving and increasingly sophisticated approaches and techniques. Augmentation procedures, on the other hand, have been used on a far lesser scale. The employment of implants, although used sporadically in the past and often with poor results, now appears to be gaining in popularity as new inert materials are being synthesized and proven safe for medical usage. It is the purpose of this paper to review the synthetic material available for nasal implantation, as well as their place in the rhinologist's armamentarium.