After rhinoplasty, your tip should drop over the next six weeks as swelling reduces and your incisions contract. However, it can sometimes take up to a year to see the full effect of your nose surgery.
Four to six weeks after rhinoplasty, we observe occasional dropping of the nasal tip due to several causes [5]. Such causes may include scar contractures, weight of the nose, and the action of the depressor septi nasi muscle [5].
It is well-known among experienced nasal surgeons that there will always be some downward contraction of the tip owing to the fact that their incisions tend to contract. The natural downward pull of gravity and contractile forces from those incisions will tend to make the tip drop.
Swelling of the tip and just above the tip (supratip) can give the illusion of the tip drooping. However, tips usually settle down after rhinoplasty, not up--some of the more common surgical manuvers during rhinoplasty are specifically designed to support the tip to maintain projection.
There is nothing you can do to speed the process along. The swelling postoperatively is elevating your tip. This will resolve with time. Be patient and continue to followup with your surgeon.
Tip of the Nose Is Too High
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. Yet, if this is the long-term outcome of your rhinoplasty, it will be difficult to find someone to correct it.
A slight upturn of the nose after rhinoplasty is common and should not be of concern. This upturn is mostly due to swelling and should improve as this resolves. Keeping your head elevated and limiting activities will help. With time this should improve.
No matter what you do to the cartilage, the tip will be bigger after surgery, not smaller!
The nasal tip has a tendency to look high immediately after surgery for several weeks. This is partly due to how the nose is taped sometimes after surgery. Every patient is different, and a lot of it depends on what was done during surgery, but on average, you may see a 1-2 mm drop in the tip over time.
2 - 3 Months Post-Rhinoplasty
By this point, any swelling around the bridge of the nose should have subsided completely. You may still experience some numbness at the tip of the nose. This is normal and the feeling should gradually return. The scar from an open procedure will begin to fade.
While swelling at the tip following a rhinoplasty can take up to a year to go away completely, 90 percent of the swelling is usually gone in about four to eight weeks. It's not uncommon for a crooked looking nose to straighten out as the swelling slowly resolves.
Answer: Nose Tip Upturned After Rhinoplasty
Thank you for your question. The answer is yes, the tip will go down as the swelling subsides.
This might mean your surgeon shaved away too much cartilage, in addition to filing the bone down to a level that was too low. This can also occur if the surgeon removed too much tissue inside the nose, weakening the nasal structure and causing the nose to collapse.
Swelling After Surgery
Generally, swelling is the most common reason why your nose looks bigger after rhinoplasty, which is completely normal. As a general rule, half of the swelling in the nasal tip will be gone after a month, but it will take at least a year for the tip to reach its final shape.
A dropped tip happens because the nose surgeon did not allow for the drop and set the tip to the nose's profile, including the bridge. But highly experienced nasal surgeons know the nose tip will undergo some downward contraction because their incisions tend to contract while healing.
Taping can be effective to subside the swelling and shrink the skin down. It doesn't, however, affect the shape and form of the nose.
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.
I recommend sleeping on your back after your rhinoplasty or revision rhinoplasty. During your recovery, your nose will be delicate and malleable, so it is important not to sleep on your stomach or side, which can put pressure on your nose. This will not only cause discomfort but may also compromise your results.
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.
After about 6 weeks your nose will be roughly as strong as it was before the operation. The strength of the nose returns faster than the sensitivity subsides. So, even though the nose may be quite strong, it will still feel quite delicate and sensitive to the touch.
Rhinoplasty failure occurs in only 5- to 10 percent of cases. Reasons that patients may consider revision rhinoplasty include: The outcome of the initial procedure does not suit the face. Healing did not occur as expected.
If you're considering a rhinoplasty (or nose job), you've probably heard a lot of horror stories about botched procedures. In fact, around 10 percent of first-time rhinoplasty procedures result in a second rhinoplasty down the road.
A rhinoplasty fail can be happen because of an inexperienced surgeon performing surgery, but it can also result from overly aggressive surgery or a surgery that was not aggressive enough.
Medical literature has suggested that the revision rate of Rhinoplasty or cosmetic nose surgery is between 10 and 15 percent, therefore Rhinoplasty has about an 85 to 90 percent success rate, although this could be higher if the operation is performed by board-certified plastic surgeons specializing in this procedure.