Today's patient case highlight has to do with a complex revision rhinoplasty in my lovely patient. She had actually suffered for over 20 years after her first rhinoplasty, and she absolutely hated her nose for that entire time. However, she's a physician, so she was in her training, she has family, so she was just busy. For the last several years, she had been researching physicians and was looking for someone who could help with her airway issues, which were significant, and who could help with her aesthetic. She's of indian heritage, and it was very important for her to maintain her ethnic identity. When I met her, she was just nervous, she was apprehensive. But we finally went through with the surgery a couple of months ago. We did a complex revision rhinoplasty. For revisions, I typically will have a rib graft as an option on standby. But the good news of her having had her nose done long ago, is that none of her septum was actually disturbed. So I was able to find enough cartilage, do all the different things we needed to do. As you'll see from her before and afters, it is a dramatic difference of lifting up her tip, getting her tip more symmetric, straightening the bridge, and, of course, improving her airways.I saw her today, she could not be happier. She said it was literally life-changing. And she loves the fact that she looks like herself. She still feels that she looks Indian, which was very important to her. And even though it's a dramatic before and after difference, she looks natural, and you can't tell that she's had a very complex revision rhinoplasty.
In revision rhinoplasty, the swelling curve is slower than in primary rhinoplasty, so she still does have quite a bit of swelling, mostly concentrated at her tip. We'll present her case again as more swelling comes down, typically between three to six months. But in a revision, it can actually take one to two years for the final swelling to go down.
#RevisionRhinoplasty #EthnicRhinoplasty #RevisionRhinoplastyExpert
