Extremely Happy: Honest Review with Recovery Expectations

I am a male in my 30s and I am 3 months PO septorhinoplasty with Dr Reish and I am extremely happy with the results. His results gallery and reviews were almost too good to believe (not a single bad rhinoplasty, really?) but I spoke with a few of his rhinoplasty patients that I found on facebook groups and they had only great things to say about their experience with Dr Reish. I consulted with several other surgeons (you probably should see at least a couple more), but my conclusion was that Dr Reish was as safe as you can play it with such a high-risk surgery. He is also nicest guy in the world and his postop care is absolutely amazing, but I focused 110% on results when picking a surgeon. My procedure was on a Friday, cast removal the following Thursday and I got back to work Monday (10 days off). The surgery included septum reset, spreader/columella/contour/tip grafts and took about two hours. Dr Reish warned me that my septum "was a complete mess" so that I would be very swollen. When I woke up I felt like shit from the anesthesia but that got much better after a couple of hours. Bruising was minimal, but my bleeding lasted several days - probably from all that septum work. I did not have any pain whatsoever and did not even take pain meds (the local anesthetic he injects surely helped). By far the most difficult part of the experience was the 6 days before cast removal when I was breathing through my mouth, which meant not being able to sleep more 1-2 hours before having to sip water. I must say thought he doesn't pack your nose and other patients I spoke to could somewhat breathe through their nose with their cast on. The cast removal was the only time I was in pain, but it was quick and manageable.

My surgery was on a Friday, cast removal the following Thursday and I went back to the office on Monday (10 days off). When the cast came off it revealed a potato of a nose and Dr Reish told me it was going to swell even more in the next few days, which was terrifying to hear. Luckily that was not the case and the swelling actually came down a lot each of the following 4 days and I was able to go back to work without anyone noticing (or at least commenting I looked different). I went for a conservative cosmetic change and by the end of week 2 PO my nose already looked better than before the surgery. I was cleared to go to the gym by Dr Reish and lifted weights the day the cast was removed (6 days PO) which I definitely did not expect since all other docs said at least 2 weeks PO. I used a Polar band to make sure my heartbeat did not exceed 120 bpm and only did exercises that did not required me to lean.

I still have a bit of swelling in the tip (3 months PO), but that is expected the first year and not really noticeable. The scar is barely visible upon very close inspection and hopefully will disappear in a few months. The things that I did for swelling the first two weeks were:

- Slept upright using a maternity pillow (for real haha) and neck/regular pillows

- Walked 20-30 minutes at a park every day

- Ate super healthy (veggies, berries, avocado, lean meats, no salt, obv no alcohol) and drank tons of water

- Took arnica tablets / bromelain / curcumin and carefully applied arnica gel

I'd say sleeping upright and avoiding salt is probably what helps the most, but it's hard to tell. A few things I recommend to buy besides the above: cotton swabs, humidifier, biotene spray, lozenges, straws, smoothies (store in fridge for the first day), pineapple juice or other non-salty drinks you like and biocorneum for the scar.

It is so difficult to find reliable information about this procedure, but from all my research I think Dr Reish might be the best rhinoplasty surgeon in the entire world based on credentials, results and reviews. He seems to knock it out of the park every single time, which is pretty crazy with such a complicated surgery - I think the difference maker is his use of grafts. He is relatively young, so I really believe it is just a matter of time before he becomes one of the most famous rhinoplasty surgeons, and celebrities around the world fly to NYC to see him (maybe they already do?).

Anyways this is by far the longest review I'll ever write, but it is my way of thanking him for such a positive experience. I cannot recommend him enough for Rhinoplasty.