Five Ways To Hasten Your Rhinoplasty Recovery

Cosmetic nasal surgery or rhinoplasty, is an outpatient procedure with a rather prompt recovery is rarely a burden for people. When I had my rhinoplasty, I was back in the office and operating exactly one week to the day that I had it done; Monday to Monday. But there are ways for people to speed up the process, particularly if they may have additional functional nasal surgery such as deviated nasal septum correction or enlarged turbinate correction at the same time as the cosmetic plastic surgery.

Here are five suggestions to shorten your rhinoplasty recovery:

1. Don't smoke. Smoking delays wound healing. It also makes the patient more uncomfortable since it dries out the mucus inside the nose.


2. Sleep with your head slightly elevated as compared to the rest of the body. The reason is that if the head is elevated, the swelling fluid that accumulates mainly around the eyes and alongside the nose will drain faster in a downward direction. Lying flat is not ideal.


3. We recommend patients use decongestant nasal sprays such as Afrin™ or Otrivin™. Because these shrink the lining of the nose, there is better airflow into the nose. Patients feel more comfortable and they are able to be more active. Listlessness is the enemy of good healing.


4. Get up and move around! This follows on the heels of number three. Lying in bed for four to five days is silly because it is not going to help matters and, in fact, makes things only worse because the more one moves around, the greater the circulation to the tissues and the easier it is for the body to reduce the swelling.


5. Take certain medications that the doctor prescribes. Some medications are very safe and practical. We give our patients small doses of dexamethasone which is a cortisone medication. Such steroids do reduce the swelling and hence hasten the recovery. We also believe in using a particular homeopathic medication, Arnica. There is some evidence that Arnica may be helpful in reducing bruising which, of course is an aim in the postoperative period.

— Robert Kotler, MD, FACS