After a rhinoplasty procedure, don't be surprised if your smile is temporarily affected by post-operative swelling. The effect is temporary and your smile will return to normal after the initial swelling has dissipated. This may take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.
A rhinoplasty can potentially affect your smile, but this side effect is often temporary and barely perceptible. In many cases at our Newport Beach office, a change in the smile is associated with modifications to the tip.
Often patients who undergo rhinoplasty in Toronto find that the lips and smile may seem different after a rhinoplasty. This is because sometimes, when extensive work is done, the muscles that are responsible for pulling up the upper lip when you smile, are temporarily weakened.
Swelling and unactualized results may make your nose seem too big, too short, look the same as it did before, look fat, or feel weird after rhinoplasty. This can lead to post-rhinoplasty depression – but if you let yourself heal, you will find you have options to improve your results.
The simple answer is no, laughing or smiling is not likely to ruin your rhinoplasty if you do it in moderation. However, if you laugh or smile too hard, it can put unnecessary strain on your incisions and cause them to open up. It's important to be mindful of this and take it easy for the first few weeks after surgery.
Answer: Rhinoplasty changes
Your cartilage in the area above the tip of your nose has been overresected, leaving a void of tissue that is filling in with scar tissue. The reason why your nose appears to be constantly changing is that the scar tissue is slowly contracting- which is what scar tissue naturally does.
Smiling and laughing 2 weeks after a Rhinoplasty should not have any impact on the final result.
Every patient is different, so recovery times vary, but generally speaking, most patients can expect to look “normal” after about three to four weeks, with a small amount of residual swelling and tenderness lasting about three months — though it is usually only noticeable to the patient themselves.
This will gradually dissipate over several months. You can expect the majority of the swelling to go down during the first 12 weeks and then gradual change over the first year to your final result. It may be difficult to be patient but your results will continue to change over time.
If work was done at the base of your nose or at the bottom of the columella (skin bridge between the nostrils), swelling in the area can affect the lip and cause it to drop a bit temporarily. As the swollen columella heals, which can take a few months, the lip will return to a normal position.
How Much Will My Tip Drop After Rhinoplasty? Your tip should drop between five and ten degrees after rhinoplasty. This drop is due to gravitational pull and your incisions tightening. Any drop that is greater than that means there may have been a surgical complication.
The surgery will chance the shape, projection, appearance, size, or some combination of these elements to achieve the desired result. Your eyes, lips, cheeks, and chin will all remain structurally the same.
Directly after your rhinoplasty, your nose tip might be over-rotated — the “piggy” look you refer to — but this is a correction your facial plastic surgeon makes so that when the nose heals it drops into a normal position. Without the initial over-rotation, you might end up with a drooping nose.
Six weeks after your procedure, the cartilage and bones in your nose will be fully settled. At this time, there will be no restrictions on the exercise you can perform.
For the first few weeks after surgery your nose may appear larger than it was before surgery because of the swelling, which will gradually subside. This process is typically complete 6-12 months after surgery though some patients have reported swelling continuing to go down up to 18 months after.
Inadequate narrowing of the tip cartilages
During a rhinoplasty, the cartilages in the tip of the nose are usually thinned. If this is not done sufficiently, the nasal tip may still look wide. The truth is that this is NOT a common reason for a residual wide tip.
The first thing that any patient should do if they are unhappy with their rhinoplasty results is give it time. The tissues of the nose will shift and adjust in subtle ways for many months after surgery. Wait a full year to let your nose heal from the initial procedure before pursuing any additional surgery.
Answer: Shape change after rhinoplasty
The nose tends to hold in to swelling longer than many other body parts. It swells asymmetrically and the swelling resolves asymmetrically. So the shape appears to change a lot during its post op period.
For the first two weeks following surgery, avoid pursing the lips as in whistling, applying lipstick, kissing, or sucking on a straw. Allowing the nose to heal with as little movement as possible will improve both your cosmetic and functional results.
Additional dos and don'ts after rhinoplasty include: Don't touch your nose: Patients should take great care to avoid putting any pressure on their nose, including even touching the nose, for at least 1 – 2 weeks after surgery, or until Dr. Khorsandi advises that it is okay to do so.
Rhinoplasty Recovery Rule #4: No Kissing!
So keeping people away from your lips is important. And this goes for kissing babies, children, or even pets for six weeks after surgery.
Bruising under your eyes should be expected with every rhinoplasty. When the nasal bones are narrowed there is almost always a little bleeding underneath the skin. Dark circles under the eyes usually don't appear for at least 24 hours and typically peak within the first 2 days after surgery.
A common tell of a nose job is poor nasal structure. A scooped-out nasal appearance is created by the over-reduction of the height of the nasal bone. Occasionally, if the hump of the nose is over-reduced, the upper lateral cartilage can collapse, creating an inverted-V deformity.
Because you will not experience this swelling exactly the same on each side, asymmetry after rhinoplasty is normal. You may experience swelling or a change of shape in your nostrils as well as the sides and bridge of your nose following your procedure.
Your surgeon may have removed an excessive amount of tissue from your nose tip in an attempt to raise your entire nose. The resulting image is a “pig snout.” You may experience this temporarily as a result of post-surgery swelling. It usually disappears after a few weeks.