Dr. Abramson describes the recovery a patient can expect after Rhinoplasty surgery:
Postoperatively, we will generally see the patient one week later, and they will usually have a external splint or cast to remove, and sometimes, but not always, an internal splint, which is a small, little silastic sheet that helps prevent scarring. I generally do not use any packing, and if I have to use a little pad in the nose to help reduce some of the postoperative drainage, then at that point it’s just suction on the day that the patient comes in postoperatively. I don’t use the traditional rolled up packing that everybody’s heard about from their aunt or uncle or grandparent that had a rhinoplasty, and that scares them in the first place from even coming in and talking to a doctor such as myself.
We see you, at that time, the one week time period. My goal, at that time period, is to remove everything at that point, make sure that you’re breathing well. There will always be a little swelling, and of course in some patients there will even be some bruising around the eyes. Usually the bruising that occurs is minimal and is on its way to being gone. As I like to tell patients, my goal at that stage is for you to be able to put on makeup or to go about your daily activities, and unless you’ve told somebody that you had a rhinoplasty, that they wouldn’t know.
After that first week visit , we will see you back, usually in about 3-4 weeks thereafter. What you can expect in those 3-4 weeks, and as I tell my patients, to understand that there’s usually quite a bit of swelling that has been compressed by the dressing that’s been on the nose, that becomes a little more noticeable in that second week after surgery. Thereafter, the swelling that’s going to go down at that point is a much more slow process. If you can think of it as a patient on a diet, who will lose a pound or two a week…they may not notice how much weight they’re losing, but over time, others who haven’t seen them will notice that there have been some changes. Most patients like the fact that the swelling goes down in a slower fashion, so as to be less noticeable as a change immediately after surgery.
It can take up to six months or even a year for all the swelling to go down; although in most of my patients, particularly the ones that have a reduction rhinoplasty or making the nose shapely and smaller, they will notice the changes right away.
Dr. Peter J. Abramson serves patients from Buckhead, Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta and beyond.
