When you decide to have rhinoplasty comes down to a number of factors. While there’s no one right season for the surgery, and an experienced surgeon will perform rhinoplasty throughout the year, scheduling the surgery for the summer months can make more sense for some people than having the procedure performed during the winter or at another time of year. If you’re considering rhinoplasty, there are a few things to consider if you’re hoping to have the procedure performed this summer.
Why Schedule Surgery in the Summer?
There are two major reasons why a person would want to schedule rhinoplasty during the summer. The first reason is that the summer months typically allow for more flexible scheduling for many people. If you’re a student or teacher, you have about three months of free time coming your way. Even people who work standard 9 to 5 jobs typically have less going on at the office during the summer months and find that it’s easier to get vacation or time off approved.
The other reason why summer can be a great time for rhinoplasty is because the extra or extended time off means that a person is less likely to have to answer questions about his or her surgery. If you’ve just graduated from college or high school, for example, and you schedule your surgery before you start your next venture in life, you will likely be hanging out with a new crowd of people at your new school or job, none of whom will know that you’ve had rhinoplasty.
Planning Vacation
Of course, one of the big drawbacks of a rhinoplasty during the summertime is that it eats into your actual vacation time. If you take the full two weeks after surgery to recover, you might not be able to get extra time off for an actual vacation during the summer. For some people, skipping a summer vacation or trip in exchange for finally having the surgery they want is a fair trade, and they simply decide to wait until next year to take a vacation.
Avoiding Summertime Activities
Certain activities commonly associated with the summer should also be skipped if you’re going to schedule your nasal surgery for those months. The activity that you might miss the most is swimming. After a rhinoplasty, you’ll want to stay out of the pool, ocean or lake for at least six weeks. Your surgeon might even advise avoiding the water for even longer.
Swimming isn’t the only physical activity you should avoid after rhinoplasty. Typically, it’s recommended that you avoid any strenuous or vigorous physical activity for about a month after the surgery. But, avoiding swimming or even wading into the water is particularly important for a few reasons. If you go underwater and swim, the pressure of the water against your nose can push it out of place or otherwise affect its healing. The chlorine in many swimming pools or salt in the ocean can irritate your healing nasal passages, too.
You might want to cancel any beach trips you have planned entirely after rhinoplasty. While you can wear suncreen on your nose to shield it from the sun as soon as the splint is removed, avoiding as much extra sun exposure as possible is usually a better way to go. If you can’t get out of going to the beach or find yourself outdoors at a family picnic or reunion this summer, be sure to apply a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 and reapply it every two hours. Stay in the shade as much as possible, too.
Wearing sunglasses can also be tricky after rhinoplasty, which can also make being outdoors for long periods of time uncomfortable. Usually, you’ll be asked to wait a few weeks after surgery before you wear any type of glasses again. If you really need to wear a pair, your surgeon might recommend taping them just above the bridge of the nose, so that they don’t put weight on your healing nose.
Swelling and Other Things to Think About
How your body responds after the surgery might be a bit different in the summer, too. High heat and extra humidity makes your body more likely to retain water, which can make swelling worse. While keeping your head elevated and using cold compresses can help reduce it, don’t be surprised if you have more swelling than anticipated.
Double board certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Epstein can help you decide if the summer is the right time for your rhinoplasty, or if you are better off waiting until the temperatures cool down a bit. Dr. Epstein has practices in Miami and New York City, and sees patients at both practices. For an appointment in New York City, call (212) 759-3484. For a consultation in Miami, call (305) 666-5884.
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