Rhinoplasty: How Long Does It Last?

The short answer: given capable, trained hands of the plastic surgeon, rhinoplasty is intended to be permanent.

Because the changes in nasal surgery are often made to bone or cartilage, the procedure usually lasts a lifetime.

After a rhinoplasty, patients look in the mirror, see a bruised face and swollen nose and naturally wonder if they must go through it again.

Perhaps three months will go by and the tip of your nose may still be swollen. Bear in mind, it can take a year before the final appearance of a rhinoplasty can reveal itself.

The bridge of the nose can be swollen for about six months while the region of the nose where glasses sit can remain swollen for periods up to a year.

However, a newly refined nose is still subject to aging and gravity so a few minor changes occur as the years roll by.

Facial muscles also can influence exactly how your nose is going to look.

For instance, in some people, the facial muscles used in smiling will also make the nose widen on the outer part of the lower nostrils. Or the tip may point down slightly.

But there could be other considerations about how long your rhinoplasty will last.

For instance, was your nose job performed 15, 20 or more years ago? Surgeons back then often took away too much skin and too much of the nose’s internal structures.

All that could lead to serious drooping or even collapse of the nose. Also, quite a few plastic surgeons from several decades ago learned how to do one type of rhinoplasty so that most of that surgeon’s patients had the same basic nose.

But today’s surgeons do much more to conserve the structures inside your nose and create a unique nose that naturally fits your face and flatters your profile.

Many rhinoplasty patients stay in touch with their surgeons and return after some years have gone by for minor touchups.

Most surgeons actually enjoy – and learn from – seeing their older rhinoplasty patients because they want to know how the nose has progressed over time.

Why? Mother Nature’s healing process is often the third party in the patient-surgeon relationship.

But minor touchups do not equal your original cost of rhinoplasty, nor are they as time consuming as was the healing process of the first nose job.