How Technology Speeds Healing After Nose Jobs

How Technology Speeds Healing After Nose Jobs
News Representation Image Source: Google Images

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES: Historically, one of the barriers to having cosmetic nasal surgery has been concern over recovery time: the time necessary to be away from work or social interactions because of bruising and swelling of the face. Patients also having internal procedures to correct a deviated septum and correct other structural imperfections causing difficulty breathing, snoring and even compromised exercise and poor sleep, have been particularly worried. While it makes economic and use-of-time sense to have both the cosmetic and functional surgery under one anesthetic, there has tended to be more swelling and bruising and hence a slightly longer recovery following the joint procedure.

Dr. Robert Kotler, author of SECRETS OF A BEVERLY HILLS COSMETIC SURGEON, and one of the world’s most experienced and super-specialized rhinoplasty surgeons, reports that nasal surgeons are now availing themselves of two products and one device that have demonstrated their power to reduce swelling and bruising and hasten healing:

• Tranexamic Acid: Surgeons of all specialties learned about this drug from neurosurgeons who use it to reduce bleeding during brain surgery. If it’s good for brain surgery, it’s good for nose surgery.

• Platelet Rich Plasma: A hero in Orthopedic Surgery, helping torn shoulders, knees, and other joints repair and rejuvenate themselves. Platelets are those tiny fragments that govern blood clotting and also enhance healing. “PRP is the patient’s home-made Elmer’s Glue”, notes Kotler, a faculty member at UCLA and former Major, Medical Corps, US Army. “It’s sprayed onto and injected into the operated tissue. Within minutes, the surgeon can witness the start of its mission.”

• The Reltok Clear-Flo Nasal Airway System:

This FDA-cleared, patented, simple and safe medical device is a pair of soft silicone tubes the surgeon seats onto the floor of the nose after “the last stitch”. It allows clear breathing in the first several days after surgery. A special tampon, inserted immediately after the airway is placed, is ultra-important since it is saturated with the Platelet Rich Plasma, an antibiotic and an additional drug to reduce bleeding. The drugs pass directly from the packing into the tissues.

Without the air tubes in place, the nasal cavity is blocked by the packing and the patient cannot breathe well. And, more unhappiness since mouth-breathing causes a dry mouth. Plus, some patients become claustrophobic and anxious. So, with the airway handling the airflow and bypassing the nasal blockage, and the packing delivering the anti-swelling, anti-bruising cocktail of Platelet Rich Plasma and the other drugs, the patient gets the best of both worlds: comfort plus accelerated healing.

“Add in anti-swelling medications such as Arnica and certain prescribed medications, plus, of course, icing, the old days of the patient looking like he or she just went 15 rounds with a boxing champ should be history”, notes Kotler. “We never stop the march to better.”