Hi Gartheven2000,
To answer your questions (with my limited knowledge)...
1) Yes, of course, who want to cut the cartilage when it's not need! Bcos I have upturn nose, so the cartilage is used, incl septal (inside the nose, ie the divider) and ear cartilage, for extending the length of the nose tip. Quoting Dr. Jung's statement in his web-site, nose tip should use autologous cartilage (ie your own cartilage).
If I can turn back the clock and choose again, I will choose donated rib for the bridge as well as it's not synthetic material, anyway is still smthg fr human, will degenerating with my age, but the bad part is the absorption rate may be high.
2) Mmm... the only diff I know of is, silicon is poreless, so if you don't like it, you can remove it later and gortex is semi porous, so your own thing will grow ard and into it, making it part of your body and fixed inside, so in long term, no movement. For Doc that use this material, they wld of course say it's gd, e.g. Dr. Jung, for Doc that use silicon, they say both are synthetic materials anyway, so equal chance of getting complication. So who's right who's wrong lei?...suggest you do your own research.
3) Just like what my last PS in SG told me, the nerve in the nose all goes into muscle, ie you won't ended up cutting 1 big nerve and that is, whole nose numb forever. Thus, so far after the surgery, my nose has feeling thru' out... but not my ear though... still waiting for it to come back, now the back of the edge a little part is back already..

still waiting...
Day 1 is ok (not swell fully yet), from day 2 to 7, I can't breath very normal, sometimes need to use mouth. Some nights I even woke up by my snore cos usually I don't hv that... ha ha ha... From day 11 onwards, all ok liao. For smell, it's not affected after the op at all, day 2 can smell nice food already.
Eyebrows ma, if you are vain enough, there's eyebrow tattoo, but be sure to choose a gd one so that you won't ended up like baazar auntie with green eyebrow. Nowadays, there are some just add colour to your existing eyebrow, the hair is still remaining there, so it's quite nice actually, saw some friends did it and after 2 yrs, I saw her, still nice.
As mentioned before, for guys, I think Dr. Jung in Seoul do a gd job, for gals... mmm...at first I don't like it but now I think it's not bad too. Anyway, just in case it sounds like advertisement and I also didn't been there before anyway, here is the web-site, you see it for yourself la.
http://korea.nose.co.kr/english/recent/recent01.asp
PS.: hi all, tmr I will resume work for 2 wks then fly to HK liao, so may not be accessing this forum often, hope you find my past posts interesting. Don't believe fully in me, try to do some homework and find out the info you need, cos it's your face ultimately. If you go to Dr. Jung or Dr. Kim ended up not nice, you can't burn my hse also... so you all think carefully and make your best choice, take care ya!
Rdgs,
Rabbit