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  • Facial Surgery Post-Op Expectations: Recovery Time and Minor DIscomforts
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What can I expect after facial surgery?

We tell patients there's always going to be a little bleeding around the edges, whether it's from the nose from rhinoplasty, or from a face lift or a brow lift. Sometimes we'll put little drains in your face to help remove some of the fluid or blood after the first week. Sometimes we'll leave them in for, at the most, one or two days.

Swelling can last anywhere between three months for the face. Basically if you do a face lift, anything with the face, I tell patients to wait a full three months before they're perfect. In regards to the upper eyes, a couple weeks. Lower eyelid fat re-positioning or fat grafting, a week or two. Even though the fat after grafting will slowly reabsorb and you'll get, hopefully, 40-50% of that fat that will take.

I'm just reading my little list here. Asymmetry and irregularities. I tell every patient that nothing will ever be perfect even if it looks perfect in surgery. Just because of the way you heal, things can change. I always tell patients that.

Itching, numbness, tightness, bruising, all these things could occur.

Facial Surgery Post-Op Expectations: Recovery Time and Minor DIscomforts

Dr. Paul Nassif describes what it's like to recovery from different facial surgeries, be it a full facelift or an eyelid lift. He notes varying recovery times as well as common discomforts some patients have reported.