There are a lot of reasons to consider having Rhinoplasty:
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Do you feel self conscious about your nose
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Maybe you think your nose is too large for your face
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You have a bump on the bridge of your nose
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Your nose is crooked or asymmetric
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Maybe your tip is droopy or your nostrils are too wide
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You suffer from breathing issues
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Your nostrils are too wide
Following Rhinoplasty and Facial Surgery, a soft diet is suggested. Stock up on soups, puddings and protein drinks before your surgery.
It is also important to avoid chewing gum and other foods that are hard to chew; it is possible that they can cause too much facial movement.
Also, avoid wine, beer and hard alcohol, they can cause the blood to thin and lead to bleeding. You’ll also want to avoid caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and energy drinks.
Daily application of a sunscreen is essential not only to avoid skin cancer, but also to prevent unwanted signs of aging such as wrinkles, and sun spots from occurring.
So keep your skin protected by using a sunscreen with at least an SPF of 15 or higher for daily use and SPF 30 or higher when you are out in the sun for longer periods. Always reapply your sunscreen every hour and a half even if it is waterproof.
Another tip, check your labels to make sure it has one of these ingredients listed as active to ensure adequate protection from both UVB and UVA rays: avobenzone (also known as Parsol 1789 or butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane), titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, Mexoryl SX, or Helioplex.
If your nose is too thin we can make it thicker with grafting material. Please note, the earliest we can do grafting is one year after your first rhinoplasty surgery.
To build up the nose, we would place cartilage grafts. The grafting material would come from ear, septal or rib cartilage. You also can put cartilage grafts on the tip of the nose to change the way the tip looks and also to make you breath better.
One great way to evaluate your surgeon is to talk with former patients who have had the same procedure. Your surgeon should be happy to put you in contact with some of their past patients.
There are several questions to ask, some are listed below:
- Why did you choose this surgeon?
- Are you pleased with your results?
- Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
- Would you go back to this surgeon for another procedure?
- Was there anything you weren’t prepared for?
To minimize swelling after surgery, it is best to keep your head elevated while you sleep. You can prop your head up with pillows or even sleep in a recliner.
Also, avoid bending over or lifting heavy objects for at least two weeks after your procedure. Bending and lifting can aggravate post surgery swelling and also raise your blood pressure, which can possibly cause bleeding.
To reduce swelling around the eyes, your surgeon may suggest ice packs, frozen peas or cold compresses to reduce the signs of bruising around the eyes.
Following facial surgery, we use silicone-based gels to apply to the wound to help reduce scars. But also, we tell our patients to make sure they have sunscreen on their incisions.
The most important thing is to do everything that’s healthy for yourself as you are healing for surgery, like staying out of the sun and applying the medications to the scars as directed.
The most important aspect of reducing the appearence of scars starts before surgery. It begins by getting an in-depth history from the patient to see if they are a good healer. You want to check to see if they have hypertrophic scars or a history of keloids. If that is all negative, then we also have to make sure that the surgeon does a fantastic job at minimizing the scar.
Some of the ways to do this is to make sure that there’s no tension on the skin wound. When we close the wound, we want to make sure we close the deep layer of the wound so that the skin just gently kisses when we suture it closed. Also we want to remove the skin sutures in the region of five to seven days after the procedure so it won’t cause any railroad tracks on the skin.
Southern California residents live with pollutants in the air, as well as and dry, hot tempatures. According to Dr. Nassif, we want to make sure the skin is nourished and replenished with good topical skin care ointments and good skin cleansing.
We also want to make sure, because of the sun, that everybody wears at least an SPF 15 sun block daily, year round.
We like our patients to be on vitamin K, to help prevent bleeding. Also, patients should not be taking any medications that might make them prone to bleeding. We go over those types of medications during the pre-op exam.
Proper vitamins, like vitamin A, and also extracts from pineapple and papaya, are important for healing. But just as important is the patient’s diet. We encourage patients to have plenty of protein leading up to surgery because protein will help with healing.
