When did your nose look normal and resume it's shape?

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#1 Post by **starteeth** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 2:17 pm

It's been 7 months since my upper and lower jaw surgery and 5 1/2 since my septoplasty, from where my septum shifted out of the groove created during surgery (think the nurse put too big of a tube up my teeny tiny nostrils).

I still feel like my nose looks big. I know a lot of the time the tip of the nose can stay swollen slightly for a year or more and is usually the last think to shrink down. I feel like my nose is wide and looks like it is being stretched more than usual, by my cheeks when I smile. (perhaps the apples of my cheeks are still puffy too).

Did anyone's area around their bridge swell or change? Mine appears to have done so. My nose bridge is usually kind of high and narrow. Now my bridge appears to be not as high and prominent. And the areas under my eyes are more hollow, my left side more than my right. The whole area, from under my eyes to down the side of my nose seems to have changed. One side seems that the flesh is firmer, while the other is sunken in. Do you think my bridge area is just swollen still? when do you think it will go back to looking more normal? thanks

#2 Post by **moth** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:40 pm

i wish i had an answer to your question because i am wondering the same thing myself!

i had upper and lower about 6 months ago as well and my nose is significantly wider, specifically the tip of my nose. my nostrils are definitely wider. i notice that my nose is extra wide now when i smile, and the apples of my cheeks are still a bit puffy from surgery too. the area under my eyes seems a bit more hollow now as well, but i think it's because the areas beside my nose are still a bit raised from the swelling, and it creates that illusion.

i talked to my surgeon, and he said that there is a relatively noninvasive surgery where the nose can be pinched back closer to how it was before. i know that my surgeon also made an alar stitch during surgery, and it obviously helped, but unfortunately not enough.

i, too, would really like to know when final results will be setting in. i will be having rhinoplasty if my nose never returns to normal.. something i really didn't want to do, but the one thing i desperately didn't want to change during surgery was my nose, and it's the one thing that changed for the worse

#3 Post by **mjj929** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:10 am

Hi!

Your nose will likely get marginally smaller, but for the most part will stay wider without any later surgery.

I also have a wider nose (and much wider when I smile) after upper jaw surgery. I definitely don't like it.

A main reason why that happens is that the surgeons separates the facial muscles around the nose (which are attached to something called the periosteum) from the bone. An alar cinch helps being theses muscles back to their original position, but many times do not completely attach to their original positions and contract/scar making the nose wider.

Also, a septoplasty can result in a wider nose if the ENT over-resects the septum, causing the bridge to have less support/projection.

Here's also a link about noses after orthognathic surgery:
http://www.realself.com/question/Rhinop ... ic-surgery

#4 Post by **lebron85** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 4:06 pm

Hey all,
Just curious with the upper and lower jaw surgery, did you have a Lefort I that resulted in the wider nasal base?

#5 Post by **danyahc** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:27 am

Ahhh yes, the nose thing ... in the weeks following my surgery I hated mine

Prior to the op my surgeon told me that I had 'narrow sills' and that correcting my upper jaw would also widen my nostrils. I was pretty nervous about this because I actually liked my nose the way it was.

Up until just recently I thought my new nose looked too big for my face, but now I'm getting used to it. People compliment me and when I ask anyone about my nose they seem genuinely surprised that I think it looks big. I guess my perception of how I look is different to other peoples perception.

It's hard to comment on anyone else' nose without seeing it ... does anyone want to share a 'nose' pic ... it can't be that bad?!?!

#6 Post by PJ » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:28 am

I, too, am concerned that my nose is wider. In fact, about 8 weeks after surgery, a "friend" who I had last seen about one week post op, said to me--"Wow! The swelling in your face hasn't gone down at all!" Followed by, "Is your nose going to stay that big??!" :{ Hopefully, other people will not get such hurtful, tactless, comments. Anyway, now at 5 1/2 months post op, the same friend told me I'm looking a lot better--of course, she might have been trying to placate me, as I had read her the riot act after her rude, previous comments.

I still think my nose looks wider, but in looking at old photos, the nose seems about the same size--it's just that my face was longer, so maybe it wasn't as noticeable to me, or to others, back then. Hopefully, those of us who feel this way will either start to see some improvement by 1 yr post op, or at least learn to accept our big schnozzes (sp?).

Btw--even though I keep telling him I do, my fiance' insists that I don't look like a Cabbage Patch doll.

#7 Post by **brendan** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:19 am

Honestly, im about 6 months, and my nose swelling is finally subsiding a bit. I imagine it won't be back to normal for another 6 or so

Nose swelling takes for-fcking-ever

#8 Post by **Tribal** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:06 am

The day of my surgery I couldn't get my nose ring out (it was a stud with a ball on the end) and the anesthesiologist said he'd pull it out once I was under. When I woke up I stuck a different type in that didn't have a ball on the end and figured I'd put my old one back in later once I was healed and the swelling had gone down.

Now, at 9 weeks post op, that nostril is still twice as wide as the other side and I still can't get my old nose ring back in, it just won't go. I just hope there isn't permanent damage to my nose from when he yanked it out

#9 Post by **HokieTay** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:24 pm

I am almost 4 months post op and I think all the swelling is gone in my nose. Granted it's a little wider at the base and my nostrils are a little bigger, but honestly I like it. I thought my nose was too narrow/thin before.

#10 Post by **Jane** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:39 am

Just to say that my daughter's nose is still quite swollen and is also wider at the base (3 months post-op) But as I posted earlier, her surgeon has told her there is a procedure (relatively minor) which can be done to bring the base in if she is not happy after 7 months or so. I think it depends on how much skin you have at the base of your nose prior to surgery - you know some people have thicker skin around the base and more tissue. We've definitely seen her nose improve looking back say a month ago. But, you know, 3 months is still very early days and I think people under-estimate the time it takes to heal - and it's really not surprising when you think of what you've all been through (and she's had it twice in 7 months!) So it's all about being patient. Having said that she's looking so much better now that her jaws and teeth are where they should be and we are so very thankful - actually, come to think of it, I haven't heard her mention the shape of her nose!

She gets her braces off in 3 weeks - isn't that amazing!

Thank God.

With prayers for beautiful noses and beautiful smiles -

God bless Jane xx