Patient Questions

Hootan Zandifar is an Expert Contributor on FindaTopDoc. Here are some of their recent answers to patient questions.

Plastic Surgeon
Hootan Zandifar, MD

Typically, eyelid swelling after blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) usually lasts for about 2 weeks. There may be some residual incisional swelling but it typically resolves over the first few weeks.

Typically, I recommend to my patients that after a facelift you should wait about 6 weeks prior to coloring your hair. this way, the incisions have time to heal and there should be little irritation at the site of the surgery.

Facial liposuction, is the procedure where a cannula attached to a suction is used to remove fat cells. Once these fat cells are removed, they will never come back. There fore, facial liposuction results are permanent.

Typically after rhinoplasty, you can get your nose wet in the shower once the dressing and sutures are removed. If you are wondering about swimming, you want to wait about 4 weeks before submerging your nose in the pool.

The absolute best procedure to get rid of double chin is liposuction along with a necklift or a facelift procedure. This allows for the fat to be removed and the excess skin to be trimmed off. If this is not something that you are interested in then there are some procedures that you can have to improve the double chin. If there is a lot of fat, you can just undergo liposuction or have Kybella injections. If there is extra skin, you can have various types of skin tightening procedures to improve the neck region. However, nothing compares to a combine liposuction and facelift/necklift procedure.

Generally, after blepharoplasty, I have my patients sleep elevated for 2 weeks. Sleeping elevated helps with a few things. First, the swelling tends to go down faster when you sleep elevated. Second, the bruising can come down faster when you sleep elevated. Finally, when you sleep elevated, you are less likely to roll on your face or your side and thus the incision line is better protected. 2 weeks after blepharoplasty, my patients can return to sleeping as they were.

After chin liposuction, the swelling can be there for a few weeks. However, every day you should feel like it is going down. There are several steps that you can do to decrease the swelling. First, you can sleep with your head elevated. Second, you can continue to wear the chin harness that should have been given to you. And finally, you can get lymphatic massages or ultrasound therapy to allow for the swelling to go down faster.

Hello, sorry to hear about your accident. Good news is you have several options. First, we can excise the scar and close it so that you may have a smaller and less noticeable incision. Secondly, we can do hair transplant around the scar to cover it up. This should get you both of your desired outcomes.

If you did not have a CT scan then the plain film X-Ray is useless in diagnosis of deviated septum. The plain film X-Ray only shows deviation of the bony septum and not the cartilagenous septum. To diagnose that you can either get a CT scan or more importantly, it should be pretty obvious to your surgeon during your physical examination. If you do not have a deviated septum, you can get a rhinoplasty to correct all of the issues that you have with the appearance of your nose. A nose job or a rhinoplasty is designed to improve the appearance of the nose and can improve breathing if done appropriately and correctly.

The best nose straightening procedure is a rhinoplasty or a nose job. During a nose job procedure, the surgeon is able to mobilize and re-position your nasal bones so that they are in a more straight position. The surgeon is also able to remove extra bulges of cartilage as needed.

I am sorry to hear that after your septoplasty, you feel like your breathing is worse. I will say that the first thing you should do is to contact your surgeon. It is possible that you now have a hole in your septum and thus feel like you cannot breath as well. It is also possible that if you had a turbinate reduction with your surgery, you have developed empty nose syndrome. This is a condition that is difficult to diagnose or treat. However, it is also rare. A third possible cause is a condition called nasal valve collapse. This is something that can be easily diagnosed and treated. Hopefully you find the correct cause and you and your surgeon are able to treat it accordingly. Hootan Zandifar, M.D., FACS

There are feminizing techniques to a blepharoplasty that can be done to make an eye appear more feminine. However, there is some limits to the extent that it can be done.

Eyelid plastic surgery or blepharoplasty is a surgical procedure to rejuvenate the appearance of the eyes. We can use this surgery to remove excessive skin and protruding fat. The results will last a lifetime but do age with you so you may need a repeat procedure in a decade.

The treatment for a scar depends on the appearance and location. You may need surgical excision of the scar but it is possible that you can improve the appearance using lasers or dermabrasion

Although revision rhinoplasty can be used to correct a previous rhinoplasty surgery, the best way to get the results that you want is to have it done correctly the first time. Revision rhinoplasty rarely gets the results that you would desire.

Depending on the location, depth and size, dermal pigments can be removed using laser or peels. You would need a consultation with a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon to see if your pigments would qualify for these treatments.

Thank you for your question. A septoplasty is a procedure that is done to straighten the crooked nasal septum. The nasal septum is the middle wall of the nose. Typically, a septoplasty does not change your outward appearance. You may have a splint placed inside the nose that is removed after 1 week, but you should look normal pretty much immediately after a septoplasty. Some people mix up a septoplasty with a rhinoplasty (nose job). In that case, then it may take a couple of weeks to no longer look swollen or bruised.

The best and most reliable method of removing fat is liposuction. Liposuction, uses suction attached to a specialized equipment called a cannula. The fat cells are then permanently removed.

Thank you for your question. Mohs surgery is very safe. It is simply a technique used to remove cancer and allows for that surgeon to look at the specimen and know if the cancer is cleared or not. The advantages of Mohs surgery is that the amount of normal tissue that is removed is not as much as it would be if you undergo regular excision. The disadvantages is that it may take longer for the procedure to clear the cancer because right after removal you have to wait for the Mohs surgeon to clear the tissue. Hootan Zandifar MD

Thank you for your questions. You should know that a nose job, or a rhinoplasty, is a very well-established procedure that, in the hands of a capable and experienced facial plastic surgery, has a great success and satisfaction rate. I would recommend finding someone who is a board certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, as they have extensive experience in nasal surgery.