On a Scale of 1-10, Is a Rhinoplasty Painful?

Dr. Nicholas Lahar

Jun 12, 2026

Patients who are dissatisfied with the size or appearance of their noses may consider rhinoplasty. This surgery alters the appearance of the nose to make it more in balance with the rest of the face, and it can also help to improve breathing through the nose.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), rhinoplasty is one of the most frequently performed cosmetic procedures in the United States. Clinical data from the ASPS confirms it has consistently ranked among the top five cosmetic surgical procedures for both men and women.

Many plastic surgeons offer the following types of rhinoplasty:

Cosmetic rhinoplasty: Performed to change the shape and appearance of the nose
Revision rhinoplasty: Performed after previous nose surgeries were unsuccessful or didn’t provide the desired look or function
Functional rhinoplasty: For patients who have trouble breathing through the nose from trauma, previous surgeries, or congenital abnormalities

Some of the changes your surgeon can make to the nose in rhinoplasty are:

Smooth a bump on the bridge
Make the nose straighter
Reduce the length
Reduce the tip size
Narrow a broad nose
Improve symmetry after an accident
Unblock nasal passages

If you are thinking about this procedure, keep the information below in mind. After learning as much as you can, talk to your surgeon about rhinoplasty to find out if it can help you reach your aesthetic goals.

Contents

1 Types of Rhinoplasty procedures
2 Rhinoplasty recovery
3 How painful is Rhinoplasty?
4 Request a Rhinoplasty consultation
5 References

Types of Rhinoplasty procedures

There are four types of rhinoplasty:

Open

This procedure requires an incision in the septum between the nostrils as well as inside the nose. This gives the surgeon complete access to the nose’s internal structures to make more comprehensive changes if needed.

Some patients worry about external scarring, but skilled surgeons can minimize this issue. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in PMC/PubMed found no significant differences in satisfaction, complication rates, swelling, or bruising between open and closed rhinoplasty. It suggests that technique selection should be based on the patient’s anatomy and the surgeon’s expertise, rather than on concerns that one approach is inherently superior.

The open vs. closed decision is one of the most common questions we get in consultation. In our practice, we base that decision entirely on what the nose needs. Both techniques, done well, can produce outstanding results.

– Dr. Lahar

Closed

The surgeon makes incisions only inside the nostrils so the scars are invisible. This procedure is appropriate for patients who only need minor changes, such as work on the tip or smoothing a hump on the bridge.

If you need major nose straightening, this type of procedure probably won’t work.

Tip

Tip Plasty is only used to change the size and shape of the nose tip. This procedure can be open or closed, but only addresses the tip and not the rest of the nose.

Filler

The least invasive procedure is filler rhinoplasty. This procedure involves injecting dermal filler in the nose to slightly change its shape or appearance.

Note that the results for this procedure are temporary, and it can only mask slight nose irregularities. The most common use of filler rhinoplasty is to even out the nose bridge to conceal a slight hump.

Filler rhinoplasty cannot remove tissue from the nose or make it smaller.

Rhinoplasty recovery

After you get home from surgery, you can expect about a week off work to rest. Your nose may be packed with gauze to reduce bleeding, and a splint will also be in place to protect it.

The splint and the stitches will likely be removed after five to seven days. Most of the bruising and swelling will fade after a week. But don’t worry if you see more swelling by day three or four; this is normal.

The Mayo Clinic advises that most of the swelling resolves within the first few weeks. However, some subtle swelling (particularly at the nose tip) may persist for up to a year before the final result is fully visible.

Most patients find 90% of the swelling is gone after six weeks, and the rest is gone after a year. Patients can typically go back to work and school after one or two weeks.

It’s best to consume a soft diet for the first week after a nose job, and don’t smoke or drink alcohol. Most patients can start exercising at about 50% of what they usually do after two weeks.

However, you should go for a daily walk as soon as you can to get the blood moving, which improves the healing process.

How painful is Rhinoplasty?

Patients thinking about rhinoplasty have many questions, but one of the most common is how painful it is. It’s hard to say on a scale from one to 10 how much pain you’ll have from a nose job. Much depends on your anatomy, the type of procedure, the skill of the surgeon, and more.

A retrospective review of 369 consecutive cosmetic rhinoplasties published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal found an overall complication rate of 7.9% and a revision rate of 9.8%. 87% of patients were identified by their surgeons as having had successful anatomical correction of their nasal deformity. This data shows that, with an experienced surgeon, outcomes are consistently favorable.

However, if you have a closed rhinoplasty with incisions inside the nostrils, you will probably have less pain than with an open procedure.

The most skillful rhinoplasty surgeons who do a lot of closed procedures often don’t use anything to pack the nose afterward, which is one of the biggest causes of discomfort. Patients who have the closed procedure will still have some swelling and discomfort, but it’s definitely less than with the open method.

Some patients have weeks of discoloration and swelling, but many closed procedure patients have less of this and can see their results after only a few days. Most closed procedure patients are pain-free after less than a week and can soon go back to work or school.

Remember that every patient is different, and some people have more pain tolerance than others. What some say is ‘pain-free’ may not be to someone else. This is one of the subjects you should cover with the surgeon during your consultation.

Also, while most patients will have some amount of pain after rhinoplasty, most of it can be managed with prescription pain medication. Your surgeon will probably give you a prescription for the first week, and you should be fine after that.

If you are considering other procedures, such as an eyelid lift or facelift, think about doing them at the same time as rhinoplasty. This lets you get all your recoveries done simultaneously and saves a lot of time and expense.

Rhinoplasty has come a long way in recent years, and most patients don’t have significant pain and discomfort. But if you are concerned about how much pain there will be, talk to your surgeon about it during the consultation.

Rhinoplasty is technically one of the most demanding procedures in plastic surgery. However, recovery is more manageable for most of our patients than they anticipated. The key is setting realistic expectations from the start, which is a big part of what our consultation process is designed to do.

– Dr. Lahar

Request a Rhinoplasty consultation

Thinking about rhinoplasty in Beverly Hills? Dr. Nicholas Lahar is pleased to provide plastic surgery procedures to his Beverly Hills patients. He will discuss your aesthetic goals during your consultation and help you decide if you are a good candidate for rhinoplasty.