SimetraNose shapes
Dorsal hump
Last reviewed: ·Educational content
Quick answer
A dorsal hump is a raised or convex section along the bridge of the nose, made of bone, cartilage or both. It is primarily a profile feature: the same nose can look completely straight from the front.
Educational contentThis guide explains appearance, not diagnosis. It is not medical advice, and it can't tell you what any procedure would do for you. Talk to a qualified surgeon about your own nose.
A profile finding, not a front-view one
The bridge — the dorsum — runs from between the eyes to the tip. When part of it sits higher than the line connecting its ends, that convexity reads as a hump. Because it is a side-view feature, many people first notice it in a photo taken by someone else rather than in a mirror.
Sometimes the hump isn't the whole story
A bridge can look convex because of what is around it as much as the hump itself: a deep starting point between the eyes, a tip that sits low, or a chin that sits back all exaggerate the same profile line. This is why surgeons assess the profile as a whole — nose, lips and chin together — rather than one bump in isolation.
What bridge work changes
Reducing or reshaping the dorsum is among the most common goals in rhinoplasty, and the major patient guides cover it directly. Modern practice also includes approaches that preserve the bridge rather than removing and rebuilding it. Which is appropriate depends on anatomy — and, as DGPRÄC points out, every nose operation has to consider whether the internal structures and nasal breathing need attention too.
How we write these guides
Simetra Learn is written from professional medical societies, public health authorities and peer-reviewed research. We name every source we used, and we don't publish a claim we couldn't trace back to one. These guides are not reviewed by a physician — where that matters, we say so instead of implying otherwise.
Last reviewed:
