Mini golf after rhinoplastry?

Thank you very much for enquire.Rhinoplasty is a very delicate procedure, and you must be very careful to protect the surgery.With only nine days of surgery you should not practice this sport, because the nasal tissues are not healed jet, and if you had an accident will result with surgery severe damage.Sweat can also contaminate the surgery, and especially you have to avoid direct sun exposure to avoid stains over/around the nose.Respectfully,Dr. Emmanuel Mallol Cotes.-

Thank you for your question.  Not that I'm a mini golf expert, but I've played it a few times in my life and don't remember it ever being an exertion or a hazard to my face.  As long as you are not elevating your blood pressure by either exerting yourself or putting your head below the level of your heart, you should be fine. No one wants their patients convalescent in bed the whole time during their recovery.  Normal non-strenuous activities are encouraged.  Just don't swing for the fences or get hit by the windmill!

This is a common question. The answer lies in the goal of swelling resolution after rhinoplasty. Ideally surgeons would love if surgery caused no swelling at all! However this is obviously impossible. So the next best thing is to get the swelling to resolve as quickly as possible. Exercise interferes and slows this down by increasing the heart rate. This in turn causes increased blood flow which results in more swelling or at least delayed resolution. So the goal is to keep the heart rate low. This doesn't mean no exercise, it means low intensity exercise. Often however the best and simplest solution is to do nothing for the first month. However if someone is careful, they could exercise, say slow jog such that they can carry on a conversation with their running partner. Or still do free wieghts but use 60% of their normal and take longer intervals.

I think that you need to ask your surgeon whether or not specific activities can be performed this soon after surgery.

Dear jungleK,

A standard game of mini golf with minimal exertion will
certainly not effect the short or long-term healing of your rhinoplasty. It does, however, bring into a broader
question of the type of activity one should engage with after this type of
surgery. Once the packing is out, cast
is off and is one week following the surgery normal activities of daily living
such as work, shopping, driving and even low impact activities such as mini
golf can certainly be entertained. If
you feel a significant amount of swelling or throbbing or headache it is your
body telling you that you are doing too much.
Increased activity will draw more blood to the operative area and cause
throbbing or swelling and although it will not compromise the overall result
and may delay the resolution of the edema and swelling patients don’t like
acutely after rhinoplasty. I generally
tell patients to avoid anything but the lightest activities of daily living
until about 3-4 weeks where upon low impact activities such as a stair climber,
elliptical or very light weight training can be instituted. High impact activity, aerobics, jogging can
begin at 6 weeks and one should always be careful with sporting activities with
a high speed projectile such as baseball or contact sports such as karate.

I would certainly rest assured that no permanent trauma has
been induced by mini golf and that your nasofacial enhancement should not be
compromised.

I hope this information has been of some assistance and best
of luck.

For more information, please review the link below.

R. Stephen Mulholland, M.D.

Certified Plastic Surgeon

Yorkville, Toronto