Precautions After Facial Contouring Surgery – You Only Need to Read This One Post

Hello, I’m Dr. Jo Hyun-woo of Ipche Hospital of Plastic Surgery.

In several previous columns, I’ve talked about the precautions you should take after contouring surgery.

Today, I’d like to gather all of them in one place and explain them at once.

Facial contouring surgery broadly includes zygoma reduction, square jaw surgery, and chin surgery.

First, I’ll explain the precautions that can apply to the surgery overall.

First, contouring surgery is performed through an incision inside the mouth.

Therefore, keeping the inside of the mouth clean is the most important thing.

Because the inside of the mouth cannot be disinfected with antiseptics or treated with antibiotic ointment, you must rinse your mouth frequently.

At our hospital, we give patients Betadine gargle for use in the early stage after surgery, and after that we recommend a general mouthwash sold at pharmacies.

It is best to continue using Betadine gargle, but if you use it for too long, your teeth may become discolored, so it is better to use it only in the early stage and then switch to a clear mouthwash.

Also, the inside of the mouth is home to a great many bacteria. Warm, humid conditions are an ideal environment for bacteria to grow.

For that reason, the risk of inflammation can increase, so you should rinse thoroughly.

Food can also get into the wound while eating.

A few years ago, I cleaned the inside of the mouth of a patient who had developed inflammation after surgery, and there were grains of rice inside.

Please make sure to rinse well to prevent inflammation and help the wound heal quickly.

Next, you need to take the medication provided by the hospital properly.

In most cases, we prescribe medicine for about 7 to 10 days. The prescription usually includes antibiotics, pain relievers, steroids, and stomach medicine.

There is a lot of debate about the effectiveness and necessity of preventive antibiotics, but we provide the prescription to help prevent possible inflammation.

Most patients take their medicine regularly, but occasionally there are people who do not take any of it.

Of course, if no inflammation develops, there is no problem, but because there is always a possibility, it would be best to take the prescribed medication carefully.

Another thing emphasized in all surgeries is alcohol and smoking. It is best to avoid alcohol and smoking for about a month after surgery.

I explained this in detail here.

Excessive drinking can increase swelling and lower the body’s overall immunity, which may also trigger inflammation.

Smoking reduces blood flow to peripheral blood vessels and interferes with wound healing.

This applies not only to contouring surgery but to all surgeries; however, the reason it is especially important in contouring surgery is that alcohol and cigarettes are consumed through the mouth.

As smokers know well, even a small ulcer in the mouth does not heal well if you smoke.

An incision site certainly will not heal well either, so please be careful with smoking.

There are also precautions to keep in mind when eating.

For about 1 to 2 days after surgery, it is best to eat liquid foods or soft foods.

Because food may enter the wound while it is still not healed, soft foods are recommended.

About 3 days after surgery, you can return to a regular diet, but when eating, it is best to drink water often to keep the mouth clean, and after finishing a meal, please be sure to use the mouthwash mentioned earlier.

Also, spicy or salty foods can cause pain.

If irritating foods touch the wound, it can hurt, so it would be best to avoid them for as long as a month.

When brushing your teeth, it is best to do so gently with a soft brush.

Some people are so worried that they do not brush at all, but there is no need to go that far.

In fact, the incision area and the teeth are quite far apart, so they are in areas where a toothbrush can hardly reach.

Therefore, as long as you brush without being too rough and without causing the brush to go against the gums instead of the teeth, it is fine to brush as much as you like, and in fact it can help keep the mouth clean.

So far, I’ve explained the overall precautions after contouring surgery.

Next, I’ll go over the precautions for each individual procedure.

In fact, zygoma reduction has a unique precaution.

After zygoma reduction, you should not blow your nose. This is a very important point.

The nose is connected to the sinuses, and during zygoma reduction surgery, the sinuses may be opened.

If you blow your nose at that time, air can enter the surgical area and cause the operated area to swell up very significantly.

Patients are often very startled and worried when this happens.

Of course, it does not affect the surgical result, but recovery may be delayed, so please be careful!

Next is exercise.

Exercise does not seem to be a particular issue as long as it is not a sport where you might hit your face.

However, doing headstands or similar movements may cause blood to rush to the head, so it is probably best not to do them in the early stage.

If you exercise too strenuously, your immunity may decrease, so please avoid such exercise.

If you read a column I wrote before, you may understand this better.

Another thing to be careful about after zygoma reduction is opening the mouth wide and chewing.

Simply put, because the zygoma is connected to the square jaw bone and the masseter muscle, chewing very hard or tough food, or opening the mouth very wide, can put stress on the zygoma.

When we have a fracture in an arm or leg, we use a cast to restrict movement.

Likewise, for the face, we limit wide mouth opening and chewing hard or tough foods to maintain minimal restriction.

This may differ depending on the surgeon, but in my case I place restrictions for about 6 weeks.

And when a CT scan shows that the bones have fused well, I tell patients to start practicing opening the mouth. Once you begin practicing mouth opening, your previous range of mouth opening returns within 1 to 2 weeks, so it is best to be careful for the full 6 weeks.

In the case of square jaw surgery and chin surgery, it should be enough to follow the general precautions for contouring surgery.

For square jaw surgery, as long as you are careful about the nerves during surgery, there are no particular recovery precautions.

For chin surgery, if a T-osteotomy was performed, it is best to avoid resting your chin on something or pressing on it until the bone has hardened.

Today, we looked at the overall precautions after contouring surgery.

If you keep only this information in mind, it should help you recover more quickly after surgery.

Thank you.