Rhinoplasty is one of the most popular plastic surgery procedures performed each year. Nose surgery can have a dramatic impact on your appearance, improving the overall balance and harmony of your facial features. While you can safely undergo rhinoplasty as a teenager, it’s important to wait until your nose has fully matured before moving forward with the procedure.
During your initial consultation, Dr. Larrabee will evaluate your nose to determine whether you are a good candidate for rhinoplasty. If you are a teenager, this process will involve making sure your nose has stopped growing.
Undergoing Rhinoplasty as a Teenager
Rhinoplasty is one of the most commonly performed plastic surgery procedures among teenagers. In 2018, over 30,000 teenagers opted for nose surgery. When considering rhinoplasty as a teenager, you’ll need to make sure your nose has fully matured. If it continues to grow after your procedure, it can negatively impact your results, leading to a deformed appearance.
The nose typically reaches full maturity at the following ages:
- Age 15-16 for girls
- Age 16-17 for boys
In addition to these physical criteria for rhinoplasty candidacy, it’s also important that your teenage child is emotionally mature enough to undergo plastic surgery. Your child should be getting the procedure to feel better about themselves. The improvement in your appearance after nose surgery will often result in an increase in self-confidence for teenagers. This can help them flourish socially and emotionally at an earlier age.
It’s important that your child isn’t undergoing rhinoplasty for the wrong reasons – it should not be done to please a boyfriend/girlfriend, parent or their friends at school. If your child’s main reason for undergoing rhinoplasty is to become more popular at school, it is also a sign that they may not be emotionally ready for this procedure.
As part of the consultation process, Dr. Larrabee will discuss your teenage child’s goals and expectations for the outcome of the procedure to gauge whether they are emotionally mature enough to move forward with the procedure. In addition, teenagers who are still minors (under the age of 18) will need parental consent to undergo rhinoplasty.
Timing Your Teenager’s Rhinoplasty Procedure
It’s important to understand that there is a significant amount of recovery time after rhinoplasty. Depending on the complexity of your procedure and the technique used by Dr. Larrabee, it can take 1-2 weeks before they can return to school. For this reason, it’s important to consider the timing of your child’s surgery.
The best times to undergo the procedure without missing school include:
- During extended holiday vacations (Christmas break or spring break)
- Over the summer
If your child is very active and participates in school sports, you should make sure the procedure is performed during the offseason. If your child goes to a sports camp over the summer or has practice for team sports during this time, then a school vacation may be the best time for surgery.
While you can start seeing results a few months after surgery, it can take up to a year for the swelling in your nose to fully subside and your final results become apparent. If your child is concerned about their peers knowing this surgery has been performed, this extended recovery time should be considered when deciding on the right time for rhinoplasty.
By getting surgery during the summer, swelling will have sufficiently subsided before school resumes that it won’t be very obvious to others. If this isn’t a concern for your child, then a holiday break during the school year may be a better option since it will allow your child to enjoy summer break in its entirety.
Contact our Seattle Nose Surgeon
Please contact The Larrabee Center for Plastic Surgery using the form on this page or call 206-386-3550 today to schedule a rhinoplasty consultation. We serve patients in the Seattle, Washington area.