In general, the first thing to worry about are swelling and bleeding after Rhinoplasty (nose job / nose plastic surgery / nose cosmetic surgery / rino plasty / nose shaping / nose reshaping / nose shaping). Prevention helps and avoiding blood thinners 2 weeks before and after is a prudent thing. Keeping your head elevated is important for the first 24 hours and first week if possible. Your tissues take time to heal. Based on wound strength studies, you gain 60% of your wound strength at 6 weeks, and 80% at 6 months and 88% approximately at 2 years. So you see that it starts to tailor off as you go past 6 weeks and even more at 6 months.  These are the points that I usually tell my patients so they can gauge their activity themselves. Most of the time resuming light activity at 2 weeks and increasing gradually is what I tell people only if everything proceeds as expected. Scuba diving, however, will place some pressure on your nose with the face mask. I would be very cautious about doing this for a while.  To be on the safe side I would wait at least 6 weeks if not 6 months.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

An alar cinch can effect the way the lips look.  It does this by increasing the volume of the middle of the nose, and upper lip.  To avoid affecting your lips you may consider different type of procedures around the alae to change the way they look.  There are different procedures that involve some minimal incisional techniques that can be done on the sides of the alae to improve their appearance that are lower risk and fast in recovery.  You should definitely go to someone with a lot of experience in doing these types of procedures and you want to have some be very conservative in this.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Cartilage grafting is the best way to augment the nose during Rhinoplasty(or nose job / plastic surgery of the nose / cosmetic surgery of the nose / rinoplasty / nose plastic surgery). It is the least likely to have infection and rejection issues. The progression of cartilage grafting is usually nasal septum, ear cartilage, then rib cartilage. Septal cartilage is the most accessible but often is limited in quantity. Significant nasal bridge augmentation may require more than what the septum can offer. Ear cartilage offers more but the bend in ear cartilage makes it less attractive for the nasal bridge but can be used for small augmentations. Rib cartilage usually is needed when the nasal bridge needs to be raised a significant amount. When you start to consider the whole nasal bridge and if it is more than 2-3mm in change, you should start to consider rib as an option. You can also consider a silicone implant. Although this is a foreign object the rejection is really low if the implant is done right.  There are limits to how big you can make your nose.  The limiting factor is the skin envelope and the lining of the nose.  Making it much bigger than what it used to be is hard.  There is really no science that is out there yet to determine how much bigger one can make the nose.  An adequate release of the tissues to allow the rib or other graft to expand the skin is necessary.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

This is a questions that I answered for someone asking about foods and rhinoplasty:

Keeping things cool and not spicy will only help.  This will cool the area and keep things from oozing.  Hot liquids and spicy foods will tend to dilate your blood vessels and lead to more bruising and swelling.  Keeping your head elevated will also be beneficial. Afrin nasal sprays or nasal constrictors can help too. Nasal irrigation will clean the nose as well. Icing immediately after the surgery and for 48 hours can keep things cool and less swollen.  Sometimes your doctor will think about steroids to keep swelling down as well and you can ask your physician about this.  I usually prescribe a medrol dose pack for excessive swelliing.  But back to foods, there is not a lot of scientific studies looking into the influence of foods on results of rhinoplasty (nose job / nose plastic surgery / nose cosmetic surgery / rhino plasty / rino plasty).  Most suggestions are based on common sense and the general sense of the surgeon.

Thanks for reading !!

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

This is a question that I answered for someone who wondered about the above. You should always sleep upright the first 48 hours after your rhinoplasty (or Nose Job / Nose Plastic Surgery / rhinoplasty / Nose cosmetic surgery). If you can tolerate it, sleeping upright will help your swelling go down even more after the first 48 hours.  This allows gravity to help your swelling.  Icing is also helpfiul.  Sleeping with your head in the middle and not turned to one side or the other also keeps things symmetrical.  To avoid swelling a course of steroids can help.  Also avoiding blowing your nose and drinking hot or spicy liquids.  Avoiding how showers and anything hot is a good idea as well.  The time that you can get oozing and swelling is greatest the first 48 hours and then the first 7 days.  After the first 7 days oozing goes down quite a bit.  I hope this answers your question.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young!

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

This is a question I answered regarding the above concern:

You probably don’t need that much taken off. One cm of reduction is on the extreme side and you really probably don’t need to take that much off when you undergo rhinoplasty (or nose job / nose shaping / nose reshaping / nose cosmetic surgery / nose plastic surgery / rino plasty).  What might bring your nose into balance is lifting up the tip of your nose and placing a graft in between the eyes to offset what you are feeling is a big hump of a nose.  The only way to tell is to look at you in person or through some well taken photographs.  Your nose can be made to look like what you want to a significant degree.  Remember, nothing is magic but we, as doctors, are trying to make it looks as though it were magic.

I appreciate you reading, Dr Young!

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

This is a question that someone had regarding getting subtle rhinoplasty results so that her parents wouldn’t find out.  This is how I answered:

Deciding what you want your nose to look like is the most important first step when considering rhinoplasty (nose job / nose reshaping / nose shaping / rhino plasty / nasal shaping).  Figuring out what you want your nose to look like can be done with special computer programs that can morph the pictures of your nose.  Once you come up with an agreement on what that goal is for the appearance then the surgeon and you will determine how to achieve that.  Depending on what you decide the end result could be subtle or could be a bigger and more noticeable change.  But ultimately you should set these aesthetic goals based on your desires of what you want your nose to look like and not what others may want your nose to look like.  After all, it is your nose and you have to live with it on a day to day basis.

To make your nose smaller you may need to bring your nasal bones in as well as make the cartilages in your nasal tip smaller and the cartilage components above the tip more narrow as well.

Thanks for Reading!

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

This is a question that was asked of me:

Hi, I would like to know how Rhinoplasty is done. If its just the tip, I want to make it pointy. I heard suture technique can give me a pointy tip, without taking out cartillage, I love my nose from the side and the size of my nose, but the tip is bolbous and I don’t like that. Please, what is done to get a pointy tip during the surgery? Thank you.

Suture techniques are a great way to make your nasal tip more refined and pointy and they are potentially reversible during a rhinoplasty procedure (or nose job / ethnic rhinoplasty / asian rhinoplasty / hispanic rhinoplasty / African american rhinoplasty / nose shaping / nose reshaping / nasal tip shaping).  Different techniques can make your nose look different and better in many ways.  One thing that you have to consider in ethnic rhinoplasty is the thickness of the skin envelope over the tip.  If your nasal tip is thick it is harder to make it more refined.  Thinning the skin is an option but that risks the survival of the skin to some degree.  Often times grafting in the nasal tip and creating more structure is what is needed. Your side profile can be maintained while still making the front more refined.

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington