After a few weeks, you will notice some crusts, bumps, and ridges or irregularities inside your nostrils. These are completely normal, and will resolve slowly on their own. It may be tempting to try to remedy these yourself, but doing so could very easily disrupt your nasal tip permanently.
If the shape of the nose deviates from this significantly after surgery, it may look unnatural and artificial. Most commonly, this occurs with aggressive reduction rhinoplasty in which the bridge is lowered too much to scoop the nose, the tip is over-elevated, and the nostrils pinched inward.
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.
The nose is made almost entirely of cartilages rather than bone. As such, even though you won't notice significant changes after the rhinoplasty, you might see small and barely-perceptible changes over extended periods, like years and decades, due to cartilage changes.
"If you overbuild the nose, it can end up looking lionlike or bulky or give you that avatar feeling. But the avatar look should not be conflated with nonsurgical rhinoplasty." She avoids it by being very precise, meticulous, and conservative in her approach.
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.
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.
1. 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.
Although it is difficult, it is extremely important to be patient throughout this process, as the swelling that persists in the tip may cause your nose to appear asymmetrical or bulbous. While this can be frustrating, it is a normal part of the recovery process and the swelling in the tip will continue to dissipate.
By about 3 or 4 months post-surgery, the swelling will have completely subsided, and the tip of your nose will show more refinement.
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.
By 1 month, most of the cheek and lip swelling has resolved, and the nasal tip shape and position are much more natural. Swelling of the tip continues to improve, and is really fading by the 3.5 month photo. Things look even better at 6 months, and will continue to improve or 1-2 years after surgery.
Every operation, no matter how minor, is accompanied by swelling of the surrounding tissues. The amount of swelling varies from person to person. Because of the looseness of facial tissue, the swelling is more pronounced in this area, and your facial features may appear distorted.
The size, shape, or look of your nose can make or break the facial harmony due to the critical position it occupies. If the nose is too big, crooked, flat or straight, it impacts the entire face. When you enhance the nose, the other facial features get noticed because rhinoplasty restores facial harmony and balance.
The surgeon may remove too much cartilage during the procedure, because of which the nose may collapse. It is also possible that the nostrils may become too narrow and will look “pinched.” This can be avoided by choosing an experienced rhinoplasty surgeon.
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.
The tip of the nose holds onto swelling longer than the other parts of the nose. Open rhinoplasty, where there is an external incision at the base of the nose, swells more and longer than a closed rhinoplasty. Patients with thicker skin will have more swelling.
This is why virtually every major celebrity around the globe chooses Scarless Closed Rhinoplasty for their nasal refinement. “Open” rhinoplasty surgeons will tell you that 99% of their patients have no obvious scars, but if you are the 1% who gets a bad scar under your nose, it could be career ending.
Reach out to the surgeon who performed your rhinoplasty, clearly explaining what you are unhappy with, and ask them what could have caused the issue. If you are confident that your original surgeon can correct where they went wrong, discuss a revision rhinoplasty with them.
This is because during this time the nose is undergoing changes. The major change that is occurring is swelling or oedema is resolving. During surgery, the soft tissue covering of the nose is traumatised. Although this is controlled surgical trauma it is nevertheless trauma.
Bulbous Tip Treatment Options
Treating the bulbous nasal tip with rhinoplasty involves refining and reconfiguring small cartilage edges, along with suturing techniques to create a sharper yet natural nasal tip. For thicker skinned patients, thinning of the nasal tip skin may be necessary.
For an overly arched nostril, which results in too much nostril show, the nasal tip cartilages may be manipulated, or cartilage grafts may be used to further drive the nostril margins downward. Cartilage grafts may also be placed into the rims of the nostrils to help straighten them from an overly arched configuration.
A nose upturned after rhinoplasty is mostly due to swelling and should resolve as the nose continues to heal. Keeping the head elevated and limiting activities should help resolve the issue. If the nose is still upturned after a full year, you may need to revisit your surgeon for an assessment.
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. Where will my rhinoplasty be performed?