Nose Surgery – Explaining the Open Vs Closed Rhinoplasty Technique

Nose Surgery – Explaining the Open Vs Closed Rhinoplasty Technique. Mr Mike Tyler, Specialist UK Rhinoplasty Surgeon for Aurora Clinics explains the Rhinoplasty Procedure. In this video he explains the difference between open and clsoed rhinoplasty. For more information or should you wish to book a FREE Consultation with our specialist plastic surgeon, call 01844 214362.

Nose Surgery – Explaining the Open vs. Closed Rhinoplasty Technique

Hello. My name’s Mike Tyler, and I’m going to talk to you a little bit about what happens to you, the patient, when you undergo an open rhinoplasty operation. Now as you know the aim of the operation is to change the size and shape and various angles of your nose, and I’ve already discussed that in a previous video.

So once you’ve decided that you’re going to have an open rhinoplasty, what will happen is that you will arrive in the hospital on the day of the operation. You will see me or the surgeon that’s going to do the surgery and also see an anaesthetist. We’ll run through the nature of the aims of the operation with you, get you to sign a consent form, and then you’ll probably have your photograph taken.

We’ll then go down to the theatre. During the course of the operation, obviously, we’ll do all those elements of the operation that we’ve discussed with you beforehand. As far as you’re concerned, when you wake up, your nose should be fairly numb. So there’s not a great deal of pain when you first wake up because we put lots of local anaesthetic in. You may well find that your nostrils feel a little bit blocked, either because they’re swollen or because we’ve put packs in. We rarely put packs in, but in cases we do. You’ll have a hard plastic splint that covers your nose. It extends onto your forehead, and that’ll be the most obvious sign that you’ve had a nose operation to anyone that looks at you.

The other thing that will be happening is that you may well start to get a little bit of bruising along your eyelids here because during the course of the operation any bleeding that happens in the nose often spreads to underneath the eyelids. You’ll be sitting up. You’ll have a little pack along the bottom of the nose just to catch any drips that may come after the operation. You’ll go back to the ward and you’ll spend a night with us in hospital.

The surgeon will come around and see you the following morning just to check that everything’s fine, and you’ll then be allowed to go on your way home. At this point, you’ll have the splint on your head. You’ll have some black eyes. Your nose will feel a little bit blocked, and you may get a dull ache around the nose for which usually Paracetamol or a little bit of Brufen or a combination of both is enough.

When you get home, we’re going to ask you just to take it easy for the first week. We don’t want you doing anything that would start the nose rebleeding again. Most patients have had a nosebleed before, and as you’re aware if you’ve had a nosebleed, if you put your head down to do any work, the nose can restart again. So anything you think would start a nosebleed we want you to avoid putting your head down. That’s sitting in a hot bath, having hot curry, or doing any form of strenuous exercise. We also ask you to try and sit up with a few extra pillows so that some of the bruising and swelling is reduced.

One week after the operation you come along and see me. We take the splint off. We take a couple of little stitches here are removed, and the remainder them are actually inside the nose. At this point, you should be able to see the broad effects of what your operation has done, although the nose remains really quite swollen. It’s very common for people to notice that the swelling actually increases after we take the splint off because that’s been acting a bit like a compressant bandage like a tubular on a swollen ankle for the week and when we remove it, it can often get a little big. It will often take about six weeks before the main amount of swelling settles, and then the swelling will continue to get better over the ensuing months after the operation.

The things that you’ll notice about your nose is it feels very wooden and very numb. It is numb. That feeling will start to come back. The wooden hard aspect of it will start to soften as the swelling goes. The other things you may notice is that your sense of smell may be a little bit diminished, and obviously it’s going to take a couple of weeks if you do have any obvious bruising underneath your eyes for that to settle down. During that first six weeks, the nose is a little bit delicate and a little bit tender, and I ask you to avoid any sports or anything that may involve contact with the side of the nose as that may well distort the nose if it’s sufficiently hard.

Those are the main aspects that I’d like you to do. Most patients that come to see me they’re involved in face to face work in their workplace and can return to work after a couple of weeks. If your appearance is extremely sensitive, such as you work in television, then you may find it’s advisable to stay a little bit longer. Thank you very much.