Will my Nose Job Permanently Affect my Smile?

Hi MT, It sounds like the muscles of your upper lip were freed up from the connections to the tip of your nose. This is the most common reason for the upper lip to hang down a little more than usual over your upper teeth, and also affect your smile following rhinoplasty. We often times perform this maneuver during a Rhinoplasty when elevating the tip. By detaching the muscles, the tip of the nose is not pulled downward during the initial recovery period. Fortunately, the effect on your... more

Mt, It is quite common for the smile to be affected right after a Rhinoplasty. There are muscles right beneath the tip of your nose that are sometimes affected by the surgery. In a few weeks, your smile will look more normal.

During a rhinoplasty procedure, structures can be altered/changed that could affect a smile, and sometimes this is desirable and planned. Having said that, I think that most likely you are still having some swelling in the area and should wait for the initial swelling to go down--don't get overly worried at this point. Finally, when I perform an external (open) rhinoplasty, I advise my patients to refrain from too much smiling the first few weeks. Hope this helps!

The smile will be very minimally affected for the first few weeks after the surgery because of the stiffness of the upper lip due to swelling from the rhinoplasty. This will subside within the first couple of weeks after the surgery and will not be a permanent problem.

At one week, your lip is swollen, your nose is swollen and your smile will feel unnatural, just as you have described. Relax and enjoy the good stuff to come!

MT, One week out from your surgery is very early. There are many reasons why your smile may look different. I hope you asked your surgeon, as he/she may have performed something additional that would affect the smile directly. Things will change over the next weeks to months, so be patient. Good luck!

It would be extremely unlikely for a rhinoplasty to affect you smile in a permanent way. There is usually swelling, sometimes quite a bit, and it can temporarily change your smile, make you upper lip numb, etc. I would ask your surgeon about it, but most likely this will go away in several weeks.

This is a question you should ask your surgeon - he/she knows what was done and if it will affect your smile, but in general, you are still very swolen and your facial muscles should return to normal as the swelling goes down. Remember, it takes a full year to see the final result with a rhinoplasty.

You just had surgery and likely have swelling. It really is too soon for you to get worried. Talk to you surgeon and express your concerns. However, you will likely see improvement over the next several days to weeks. Hang in there...

After a Rhinoplasty, especially one week later, there is still alot of swelling. This will impact the sensitivity of the tip, the stiffness of the tip, and the upper lip. All these things usually get better with time. It can take a few weeks for the lip but may take months for the nose.

Your smile is more likely to affect your nose rather than the reverse! The upper lip may in fact pull on the nose during some movements, and cause the tip to plunge. The fact that your upper lip doesn't move well indicates to me that swelling and stiffness as a result for swelling is the reason. Over time, the lip should return to normal. Do talk to your doctor about yor concerns.