How Long Does Swelling Last After Rhinoplasty Surgery?

Kendra,
It sounds like you are going through the normal course of healing that everyone experiences. The swelling around the bony area of the nose always resolves quicker as the skin and soft tissue is thinner. Around the tip, the skin is not only thicker, but it is the most dependent area of the nose so swelling always takes longer to resolve. Just be patient and give it time. If you are not sure, take a picture of your nose at one month after surgery and at six months after surgery and compare them. You will almost certainly see a difference that is hard to notice as you look at it daily. Good Luck.
Dr. Miller

In general, swelling after rhinoplasty takes months and months to fully resolve and the tip is affected the longest.  

Two weeks in is relatively early to start worrying about swelling after your rhinoplasty surgery. Swelling is one of the main components of the healing process, and the look of your nose is likely to continue changing as swelling continues to subside. I generally advise my patients to wait at least a month before they start to judge the looks of their new nose, as a great amount of the swelling should be down by then. Still, swelling can last up to a full year-or even two years- after your rhinoplasty. 

 

                  It’s
not unusual for patients undergoing rhinoplasty to have prolonged swelling.
Several factors, including the use of open rhinoplasty, fracture of the nasal
bones, thickness of the nasal skin, and a previous rhinoplasty have been
associated with prolonged swelling.

                  Most
patients will note significant swelling for about two weeks following surgery.
After two weeks, most patients are comfortable resuming their normal lives and
going out in public.

                  Swelling
will persist in most patients for at least one year following surgery, with the
nasal tip being the last site to experience resolution. In the immediate
post-operative period, nasal splints, elevation of the head and ice can be used
to minimize swelling. 

After Rhinoplasty, it can take up to a year or longer for the tissues to completely settle and the swelling to resolve. While the majority of the swelling resolves within the first few months, the tissues continue to change over the next year.

One must always expect some degree of swelling and bruising after a rhinoplasty.  The splint, since it compresses the soft tissue will keep some of the early swelling down.  Once this compression is removed the entire nose can swell.  Do not be discouraged, the swelling will gradually improve over the next few months.  Other than ice and elevation there is not much you can do to speed the process along.

The tip will feel thicker, hard, and woody in the postoperative phase for the first couple of months due to lymphatic edema, scar tissue and healing that has not completely subsided yet. The tip will look bigger for the first couple of weeks until the swelling comes down.

It is VERY normal to have swelling at this stage after surgery. Although the length of time for swelling to resolve after rhinoplasty varies among patients (some taking up to 2 years), I tell my patients that swelling will resolve across the dorsum (bridge) in 6 months, while the tip and sidewalls (region where glasses sit) take 12 months.
If you had an open procedure, tip edema tends to take a bit longer than for a closed rhinoplasty.
You are now at the stage where you sit back, relax, and wait for the final result to reveal itself – there is no way to speed things up.

Dear Kendra,
I am sorry to say that in no case is the swelling gone in two weeks. Even if you were punched in the cheek, the swelling would take longer than two weeks to completely go away.
On the nose, where a small amount of swelling can be visualized, at two weeks you have a long way to go. Furthermore, the tip tends to remain swollen longer than the other parts of the nose.
Best of Luck!