Dr. Davidson's Homepage

Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

About the Author

Aging Face Surgery

Anesthesia

Blepharoplasty

Chemical Peel

Chin Augmentation

Complications

Evaluation for Facial Plastic Surgery

Facelift

Forehead Lift

General Instructions to Patients

Hair Replacement

Healing

Liposuction

Otoplasty

Rhinoplasty

Risks with Facial Plastic Surgery

Scalpels, LASERs and Endoscopes

Scar Revision

Skin Cancer

Submental Lipectomy

The Cost

Who Does Facial Plastic Surgery?

Why the University?

Healing

The body is in a constant state of change, from the time it is born until the time of death. When one performs an operation on the human body, one alters the normal course of growth and development and it takes the body a long time to successfully incorporate this into its normal development. Every time you make an incision, you leave a small scar. Every time you alter tissue in any way by performing a rhinoplasty, a blepharoplasty, or a facelift, you leave behind some scar tissue. That scar tissue initially goes through an inflammatory phase and finally through a maturation phase. The inflammatory phase lasts for several weeks and it is during this period that most changes are seen. The maturation phase goes on for months, and in many patients for years. During this time, the effects of surgery are less noticeable and the changes are more subtle, but in fact they continue to occur. Many postoperative results continue to change for several months after surgery. Most of the time this long-term healing results in an ever-improving final result.

Every person is uniquely different in the ability to heal; each operation is different in the amount of injury it causes, and in the time required to completely heal. As a general rule, if there is bruising with some color change, such as would be found in a black eye after eyelid or nasal surgery, the blood which causes the color change is reabsorbed over a period of seven to fourteen days. Incisions which initially are red, lose much of that redness in the first six weeks, and from that point on slowly change from a red color to a white color. This change continues for six months to two years, and occasionally even longer. During this time, if the scar has been slightly elevated, it will tend to flatten and occasionally even retract, causing a small indentation. If bones are broken or cut, they normally require six weeks to mend.