Downtime After Rhinoplasty Surgery

Hi there, I’m Dr. Kristina Tansavatdi, and I'm a double-board certified facial plastic surgeon. In
this video, I'm going to answer a question that I get frequently asked, and that is "How long
should I expect for downtime after rhinoplasty surgery?" So, first let me just divide it into how
long for a full expected result from a rhinoplasty surgery. That may take up to one year and
sometimes up to a year and a half to two years depending on the thickness of your skin. When
we talk about downtime from the acute standpoint or just immediately after the surgery, when
you could go back to work or social expectations on when you can visit with friends, I would say
plan for one to two weeks. And that is because right after the surgery, you will have a cast. Most
of my patients come out with a cast on their nose because we may have done some bony work
on the bridge of the nose. And the cast is in place to hold everything in place. That cast comes
off usually at the one-week appointment. Sutures are also used in open tip rhinoplasty surgery.
So that's probably about 80% of my cases, and the sutures on the bottom of the nose and those
sutures come out at one week as well. You may have some bruising or swelling that you have to
deal with right after the cast comes off, and literally about 10 days is the expected time for a
younger patient to be able to go out and not be seen as that they've had something done on
their nose. But an older patient might require a little bit longer downtime, and that is because
you could have more bruising and swelling and that recovery is just slower. So you do have to
expect that the older you are as patient, bounce back as quick as maybe, you were, when
you're in your 20s. Then besides that, you want to also give yourself a cushion. So always be
wise to give additional time in case you're not falling within the average time for frame for
everybody else that's in your age group. All right, there you have it. That's the generalization of
how long you should expect for downtime from rhinoplasty surgery. Thank you for tuning in.