One of the first questions potential patients ask during a first consultation with a plastic surgeon is about how long recovery from a particular cosmetic plastic surgery procedure requires.
And who can blame them? With busy, active families and demanding jobs, time is precious as well as limited. Here’s a starter:
Rhinoplasty: patients are usually good to go between the 5th and 7th day after surgery. Most wear a splint to protect the nose, keeping it in the same shape as when the patient left surgery. The splint is removed on the fifth day, long with the KNA breathing tube. Most nose job patients can go into public after ten days, although the nose will continue healing – and look even better – for a year.
Recovery routines are different for:
- Non-surgical rhinoplasty
- Ethnic Rhinoplasty
- Nose surgery for breathing correction
Eyelid surgery: Stitches are usually removed between the fourth and six days after surgery. Lower eyelid stitches are hidden behind the lower lid and are self-dissolving. Most go back to work between the fifth to seventh day after surgery. Any remaining swelling or bruising is hidden by makeup or by sunglasses. Incisions are hidden in existing creases. Strenuous exercises are best held off for 10 days.
(Read more info on eyelid surgery.)
Face lift: Set aside seven days for surgery and immediate recovery. Face lift patients see the surgeon the day after surgery to change the dressing and to check for infection.
(Read more about after face lift surgery procedures.)
Protruding ears: Putting ears in a more normal, less protruding position can be done for adults or on children five or older. The surgery – known as Otoplasty — sculpts and reshapes the ear’s cartilage via incisions very discreetly placed on the ear’s rear.
If you recover at home, somebody must be with you for the first night. There’s no need for stitch removal because dissolving stitches are used. Usually a return to work or school happens five to seven days after surgery.