Answer:
- The day after your surgery you will clean the incisions twice daily lightly with peroxide to help remove crusting. This can be discontinued the third day after surgery (i.e. only clean the incisions for two days)
- Do not pick at any incisions as this can cause bleeding and inadvertently loosen the fine stitches
- Do not allow pets to touch incisions. Wash your hands well before touching the incisions yourself. This helps avoid infection.
- Keep your nasal cast dry until it is removed at one week
- If nasal surgery is performed, apply antibiotic ointment on the external incisions and inside the nostrils with a Q-tip twice daily. Use saline rinses several times per day for the first two weeks
- Intra-nasal mucosa is commonly swollen after surgery which can make it difficult to breathe through the nose. This is particularly troublesome as you sleep. Therefore, you can use the decongestant nasal spray Afrin in the nose, 2 puffs to bilateral nasal cavities, only at night. This can be started on the second post-operative night and can only be continued for three nights maximum. This may help with breathing while you sleep.
- Facelift and liposuction patients are asked to wear a chin strap continuously (except for brief periods during eating, showering, socialization) during the first two weeks and then nightly the second two weeks. The chin strap helps with the swelling and helps the tissue heal under less tension
- If eyelid surgery was performed, use preservative free artificial tears every hour for the first week or until your eyes feel naturally lubricated; an ointment should be used at bedtime for lubricating the eyes while you sleep
- All sutures, clips and casts will be removed during the first week
- Rhinoplasty patients are seen at 4-5 days after surgery for suture removal and then at 7 days for cast removal which is immediately replaced with tape.
- Face, neck, forehead, eye, ear and chin surgery patients are seen after 3-5 days and again at 7-8 days after surgery for suture removal and taping
- After suture/cast removal we will apply tape which helps with healing
- The tape should be worn continuously until two weeks after surgery
- After two weeks you will apply the tape as instructed only at night and during sleeping (i.e. you will not have to wear it in public after two weeks) for the third and fourth week after surgery
