What to Expect After Rhinoplasty

Cosmetic surgery on the nose, known as rhinoplasty, is a commonly performed procedure. If you decide to have it, you need to know what to expect after rhinoplasty.

What to Expect After Rhinoplasty

After a lot of research, you've finally decided to get rhinoplasty. Of course, you've heard about the surgery itself, the costs involved, and the expectations you can have as results from this type of plastic surgery. The next thing you should consider is what to expect after rhinoplasty.

Your image immediately following surgery will be startling. You will be bruised and swollen after it has been completed. You probably won't like what you see in the mirror. Your nose might be packed with gauze. You will have a cast on your nose to support the healing nasal structure. Your doctor will tell you whether or not to keep ice or cold compresses on your nose, some people feel that bags of frozen peas make a good ice pack, as they mold to your face.

Your nose will be stuffed up, and you'll have to breathe through your mouth. You'll also feel some pain from the procedure, and you may become nauseous or throw up. This can happen either from swallowing blood during the surgery, or from the after-effects of anesthesia. In five to seven days, your surgeon will remove the cast from your nose and you'll be able to see your new nasal area. It will still be bruised and swollen, and you'll want to take care to not jostle or hit your healing nose, as it will hurt.

In about ten days (longer if you're a smoker), your bruises will fade and you should feel ready to face the public if you haven't done so already. You might want to cover any remaining bruises with color-corrective cosmetics. Your surgeon will often make recommendations regarding which cosmetics are right for your skin type and bruising pattern.

It can take two to four months for all swelling to go down from the surgery. In some cases, it can take up to a year before you'll know exactly what your nose is going to look like. Some people become upset with the look of their post-operative nose in these first months, as crookedness and bumps may show up during the healing process. Most surgeons recommend against going through any other procedures, such as revisions, for at least nine months after having rhinoplasty. The healing process can simply take this long, so you will need to have some patience.

Rhinoplasty is the type of plastic surgery that has a very high success rate. In this case, success is defined as meeting the reasonable results the surgeon predicted prior to the surgery. That being said, you have to understand what to expect after rhinoplasty and have some patience.

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