After rhinoplasty how long should the swelling last?

Post-Rhinoplasty nasal swelling lasts up to 1-12 months in some form. However, while you SHOULD STILL have nasal swelling 3 weeks after your surgery it should not be extreme. You may want to check with your surgeon. Peter A Aldea, MD

 Majority of the swelling goes away after a couple of months usually. It is totally normal to still have some swelling at three weeks. Some of the swelling will persist, and take about a year to gradually go away.

While rhinoplasty patients look good enough to resume their normal schedule by 7-10 days, some swelling in the tip skin is present for months. The textbook answer given by rhinoplasty surgeons is 1 year for all swelling to be gone. It just takes time for the skin to become supple again.... more

 Most patients may have bruising and obvious welling for 1-3 weeks. After this, although swelling exists, it usually subsides enough so that the nose does not look as though it has been injured.  Residual swelling may take as long as 6 month to totally subside.  However, this is relatively... more

When I was a resident 25 years ago, I was taught that it takes a year to see the final result from a rhinoplasty.  This has to do with, not only remodeling of the tissue, but also resolution of the swelling.  I tell my patients that 50% of the swelling is gone in two weeks and 70% in two months... more

Swelling after a rhinoplasty can be vary patient to patient and is related to how complex the rhinoplasty surgery was.  At 1 week, it is very common to be very swollen, but over the next 2 weeks people are usually only minimally swollen.  Most of our patients in Naples, Florida return to school or... more

Yes - it is very normal to have significant swelling at 3 weeks.  Generally at 1 month, most people you meet for the first time will not know that you have had nasal surgery, but the swelling will take much longer to resolve.  Typically, it takes 6 months for swelling to disappear from the bridge,... more

Rhinoplasty swelling can last up to a year in some patients especially in the lower third of the nose. If one has a complete rhinoplasty including the upper, middle and lower thirds of the nose, the swelling can take a full year to subside even if the noticeable part to others is gone sooner.For example, the... more

Swelling after rhinoplasty (nose-reshaping surgery) is normal and expected. Due to the thicker skin around the nasal tip the swelling lasts for up to one year after surgery. This tries the patience of the patient and surgeon alike, but there is no way around it. The results are worth it for motivated patients... more

The duration of swelling after is related to the magnitude of the surgery.  The typical length is 12-18 months.  Activity should be curtailed in the early weeks to minimize compounded swelling.