Rhinoplasty

Nose job or Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty is the name of surgery that involves re shaping the nose or making corrections to it, this is perhaps the most common of all cosmetic surgical procedures. The surgery can involve many different aspects of shaping with some of the most common being enlarging or reducing, changing the shape of the tip or bridge and narrowing the span of the nostrils. It is also a surgery which can help with birth defects or injuries caused to the nose and can help to relieve some types of problems with the breathing.

Who can benefit from Rhinoplasty?

The Rhinoplasty surgery can be used purely for cosmetic reasons where people want to change the shape of their nose of for those who suffer from certain breathing problems or disfigurement through accidents. Generally, in people who want the surgery purely for cosmetic reasons surgeons won’t operate on teenagers or children until after they have completed the growth spurt, which is usually around 15 years of age.

The Rhinoplasty surgery and recovery time

Rhinoplasty is usually done on an out patient basis with very few people needing to stay in the hospital for any length of time; a hospital stay will usually result from extensive surgery say after an accident. The surgery itself will either need general anaesthesia or local and this will depend on the extent of the surgery and the type that your surgeon personally prefers to use. If local anaesthesia is used, you will be lightly sedated and the nose and surrounding area will be numbed, with general anaesthesia you will sleep throughout the entire procedure.

The average Rhinoplasty surgery will take around 2 hours but extensive procedures can take much longer and your surgeon will have talked this over with you beforehand. During the surgery, the skin of the nose will be separated from the bone and cartilage, the bone and cartilage will then be sculpted to the desire shape. The skin will then be replaced over the new structure and once completed a splint will be applied to hold the nose in its new shape.

After The Rhinoplasty surgery

During the first 24 hours following the Rhinoplasty surgery you will feel discomfort and your face may be swollen and the skin underneath the eyes will normally darken, you might also suffer from headaches. The swelling and bruising which forms around the eyes will worsen at first and finally reach their peak around three to four days after the surgery.

Most of this swelling will have disappeared by around two weeks although it’s not unusual for a little swelling to remain for up to several months, however this swelling will not be noticeable expect to you and your surgeon.

You should normally be able to return to work a week after the Rhinoplasty surgery though it will take some time before you feel completely back to normal, daily activities should be gradually resumed but you should avoid any strenuous form of activity. Your surgeon will have talked this over with you and prepared you for what you should or should not do during your recovery period.