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  • What Can I Expect the Week After Rhinoplasty? Day-to-Day Steps For Amazing Results
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Hi, I'm Dr. Yu. I'm a facial plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills and a question that I frequently get asked by patients is, "What can I expect after rhinoplasty surgery and what can I expect during recovery?"

Typically for my patients, I do use a thermoplastic splint or a cast on the bridge of the nose. So after surgery, patients will have sutures, usually along the bottom, the columella, where I made the incision to open the nose and the cast on the bridge of the nose. There may or may not be bruising around the eyes and underneath the eyes, depending upon the need for narrowing the nasal bones or having to fracture the nasal bones to bring them in.

Pain after surgery is usually something that patients are pleasantly surprised by. It may be more discomfort than it is pain for the majority of patients. One annoying thing that patients may find after surgery is that it's not as easy to breathe as perhaps before surgery, because even though I don't use nasal packing inside the nose, I do like to use Silastic or silicone splints that stay in place for a week after surgery. They are thin sheets of silicone, and those help to compress and to limit the swelling inside the nose.

Besides that, during the first week after surgery, the routine is very simple and it's the same every single day. My office provides a detailed list of medications, which includes antibiotics and a Medrol Dosepak or a steroid dose pack to also limit the swelling. In addition, we advise patients to use Arnica, which will also help to reduce and limit the amount of swelling and bruising after surgery.

The routine for the first week after surgery goes something like this. Three times a day, patients will irrigate their nose with saline rinses to keep the inside of the nose moist and to ensure that there is no excess crusting and that everything inside the nose heals properly. For the incisions outside of the nose, peroxide is mixed with distilled water and used to clean gently the incision line and to make sure that those also heal properly.

After those steps, all the incisions are covered with antibiotic ointment and kept moist and that same routine is carried on for the week after surgery. One week after surgery, the cast, sutures, splints all come out and the new nose is revealed.

So that is some of the main, basic things that can be expected after surgery or rhinoplasty surgery. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me or my office and I look forward to speaking to you soon.

What Can I Expect the Week After Rhinoplasty? Day-to-Day Steps For Amazing Results

Dr. Donald Yoo discusses what you can expect during recovery after rhinoplasty (nose job) surgery.