Rhinoplasty: Recovery Following Surgery | Aesthetic Surgical Images Rhinoplasty refers to nose reshaping. In the typical rhinoplasty procedure we will make an incision at the base of what we call the columella. Those incisions are taken to the inside of the nose which allows us to lift up the skin and the soft tissue of the nose so that we can see the cartilage and the bone. Typically we're going to remove some extra cartilage in the tip to make a finer, more well-defined tip. Often we'll take a bump down here, part of that bump is bone, part of that is cartilage, and then we'll oftentimes cut the bones here and actually break them up here to bring them in closer to have a more narrow and more attractive nose. All of these changes are traumatic to the inside of the nose and cause injury that takes a while to heal. The inside of the nose in the areas that we've cut and moved have very fragile capillaries for a while. The capillaries are the small blood vessels in this area. As blood leaks and fluid leaks out of those capillaries, it causes swelling, and it could actually cause bleeding in the short term. It's very important to keep your head elevated for several days after this operation. That would probably be in the week to 10 day period of time to help gravity take that swelling down to the heart area so it can be pumped out into the body and gotten rid of. Usually we'll see bruising resolve itself to the point you're presentable in 7 to 10 days. After the operation there'll be some stitches on the outside. Most are on the inside. The outside stitches are usually taken out at 1 week. There'll be a splint on the outside of the nose commonly which is usually removed at 1 week also. Oftentimes there's a light packing on the inside of the nose that we'll take out in the first 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes if more extensive internal surgery is performed such as the septum, people know and understand what a septal deviation is, commonly that's fixed. If a deviated septum is repaired, then the packing might stay longer than the 1 to 2 days I mentioned earlier. Afterwards it's going to be important to be very careful with eye glasses. If you have eye glassed resting on these fragile bones, there's a chance it could cause an indentation that may not go away. It's very important to protect your nose against any kind of bumping for at least 3 to 4 weeks because it takes that long for the bones to heal to a point that they won't be dislodged by bumping your nose or hurting it in other ways. It's very important if you have this operation to comply with all of the recommendations from your surgeon in order for you to have the best possible result. If you’d like to schedule a consultation, fill out the contact form on this page - https://www.surgicalimages.com - or call (402) 390-0100 / (402) 644-7132. 8900 West Dodge Road, Omaha, NE 68114 Columbus Health Park. 4508 38th Street #120, Columbus, NE 68601 2501 Lakeridge Drive. Suite 100, Norfolk, NE 68701