Hard-Nosed Athletes Need Soft Approach to Healing

Hard-Nosed Athletes Need Soft Approach to Healing

Hard-nosed athletes are known for their high thresholds of pain and low tolerance for inactivity.Nobody, perhaps, exemplifies that definition better than Matt Hendricks, the youthful-looking member of the Washington Capitals who fractured his nose in a fight during a February National Hockey League game against the Florida Panthers. Plastic surgeons were able to reset the broken septum during a break in play, allowing the gritty forward to return to the ice a few minutes later.

Hendricks is not foreign to nose jobs – he’s had five nasal fractures during his career. You might say he is a poster boy for athletes and the facial injuries that they must tolerate as part of the game.Nose jobs are not prejudicial to hockey players alone. All types of athletes – from professional football players to amateur weekend warriors – are susceptible to broken noses. Thanks to rhinoplasty, a surgical procedure that changes the shape of the nose, athletes can have balance restored to their faces, unsightly bumps removed, or nasal passages cleared to improve breathing.

It is important to know that rhinoplasty is considered major cosmetic surgery and should be treated as such. That means, unlike Matt Hendricks who was unfazed by a broken nose, rhinoplasty patients are advised to forsake physical activity and allow the adjustments made to their cartilage time to heal. People have rhinoplasty to change the shape or look of their nose, certainly not their daily routines – but that is exactly what patients must do following surgery. Although walking is allowed the day after surgery, running, jogging and other aerobic activity are off limits for at least the first week, usually longer. Most cosmetic surgeons will encourage some light walking to prevent blood from clotting. In time, light aerobics can be added slowly to an exercise regimen.

Remember that the incisions and bones are healing and that swelling in the nose will obstruct breathing and make intense exercise more difficult. As a rule of thumb, any activity that might pressure the stitches to pop should be avoided. Bending exercises, including toe-touches and lifting of more than 10 pounds, should also be prohibited during the first week of recovery.Sexual activity should be limited as well and partaken with caution. It might even be a good idea to sleep alone the first week following surgery to prevent accidental bumps from a bedside partner.

The nasal septum is the most prominent cavity on the face and the most delicate to heal. The last thing anyone should do is tough it out and risk developing a rooked or bent nose that creates long-term breathing problems. An easier, softer way is the best approach for even the most hard-nosed athlete in all. To learn more about rhinoplasty, contact the Williams Center Plastic Surgery Specialists in Albany, New York, at (800) 742-2797.