How Long Before a Wedding Should You Have Rhinoplasty?

A common question and topic is, should I do a rhinoplasty close to an event like a wedding? I'm getting married. When should I do it? Well, I did my own wife's rhinoplasty about two to three months before our wedding, because we had a discussion when we were engaged, and we didn't want her nose to look different after the wedding pictures. Twenty years later, we didn't want to have wedding pictures that looked different, if we could change that. Obviously, I get plenty of patients who were married long ago and come in later in life wanting a rhinoplasty. It is what it is. It's fine, perfect. But if you can actually work on the timing of it, why not?

Now, I always say give me at least three months. Why? Because you never know. Surgery is sometimes a very smooth process from A to B. A smooth road. You get there quickly, you heal beautifully. Sometimes it's a bumpy road. You could have more swelling. You could even have an infection. You may have a little detour on that road. The healing process may not be as smooth, and you don't want to all of a sudden be stressed out that your big day is coming up, your big event is coming up, and you're not perfectly ready for it.

It also depends on the amount of change. If you have a really big nose, a really droopy nose, a really big hump, well, even with swelling, you're still going to look better, right? But if it's a subtle type of surgery, you may not look as good. If it's a subtle removal of a bump or a subtle reshaping of the tip, then the swelling makes a bigger difference to the outcome, so you want to give yourself more time.

So that's the answer. You've got to look at it. It also depends on skin thickness. Thicker skin tends to swell up more. Thin skin is going to heal faster. But if you give me at least three months, most likely you're going to be happy. If you can give me four months, five months, six months, even better. But don't do it too soon.