What Is Rhinoplasty Recovery Really Like?

Hey guys, it's Nim here. I am Dr. Naderi's surgical coordinator, so I actually just had my rhinoplasty done with him a few months ago. So I kind of know the ins and outs, the ups and downs of the recovery process. I'm here to answer all of your questions that you have regarding rhinoplasty, post-op care, recovery questions. So ask away. For context, this was it before, and then this is it now. Perfect.

For me personally, I did not have any bruising. I had minor discoloration under my eyes, which went away after a few weeks. Again, you can wear makeup to cover that too, after the cast removal. But yeah, I had no black eyes, nothing like that.

So I slept propped up for about a month after the surgery.

My rhinoplasty was open, and you don't really see a scar, but it's right there. The scar does fade as months go on. I didn't use a scar gel or scar cream or anything like that.

Swelling depends on a bunch of things: your diet, thick skin versus thin skin, what you do after. Personally, I have thick skin, and I had to tape my nose for about a month. The one-month mark is when I kind of saw the shape of my nose, once the swelling started to go down a little bit. It's around the one-month mark for me.

Yes, so that's actually exactly how it felt. I didn't have any pain or anything. I didn't take any pain medication. I was breathing out of my mouth that full week, so dry throat, sore throat, cough, congestion, mucus, sinus pressure. More that than actual pain on my nose. Don't be scared. It's not too terrible. You don't even realize that you're doing it, so it's not so bad.

It's typically one week of downtime after rhinoplasty, until you get your cast off, so most patients do take off that one week. But again, depending on how comfortable you are going back to work, you can definitely take off longer. Most of our patients who work in a hospital setting, we suggest you take off a little longer, just because you want to avoid heavy lifting, more than 10 pounds, anything to get your heart rate or blood pressure up, for about a month.

At the time of your consultation, we'll go ahead and bring you in. We'll take some photos of you, a cute little photo shoot. You will meet with Dr. Naderi. He'll do the imaging with you, kind of as a discussion tool, as before and afters for the surgery. You two will discuss your goals, your concerns, all of that. If you are a surgical candidate, you'll go ahead and meet with me after, and I'll go over pricing, the quote, surgical dates, all of that. So the consult does last however long you need it to last, to get all your points across with Dr. Naderi. Typically it's around a 30-minute appointment, but it all just kind of depends.