Dr. Shervin NaderiFacial Plastic Surgeon specializing in Rhinoplasty & Anti-aging as well as Facial Balancing Botox & Filler Injections

Nose Taping After Rhinoplasty to Maintain Shape and Improve Healing

23 Oct 2024 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:51

A short instructional segment by Dr. Shervin Naderi demonstrating how to tape the nose after rhinoplasty to control swelling and support healing. Key technique points: place tape on the nose (avoid the face), do not cover the nostrils, create a V-shaped application rather than a U to avoid pinching, lay tape gently without stretching or pressing, and crimp small 'shark fin' folds at the edges. Timing guidance: leave tape in place for days at a time, changing roughly every 3–4 days during the early recovery (first ~1–1.5 months); after several months, tape can be used intermittently for sleep, flights, or exercise.

Questions this video answers

About every 3–4 days (change infrequently—once or twice a week).

After a few months; use at night, during flights, or for exercise as needed.

No — do not cover the nostrils; place tape just above the nostrils and extend toward the eyes in a V shape.

No — lay the tape down gently without pulling or pressing; do not yank or press hard (pressing can damage cartilage or cause swelling).

Chapters

It over half of the tip right there. Okay. So that's basically it. Don't make it go too wide. Don't go on the face because you don't want to make it ugly. Stay on the nose and then you go on the bottom. This one's the longest piece. Don't cover the nostrils. It goes just on the little skin here above the nostrils and then go out towards the eyes, almost like a V. Don't make it a U, make it a V and you'll see why. Because when you make it a V, you don't pinch the nostrils. Now this part's not touching the skin, so you just come around and you just kind of crimp this like that, make a little shark fin like that. And now that's it. So this is basically it. Now that's just one layer. I went from top to bottom. Now I'm doing from bottom to top still. I'm not yanking on the tape. I'm not pulling on it. I'm just laying it down, letting it touch the skin, crimping the bottom here, creating a little shark fin, and then going back up the nose again, super gentle. If you press down, you can vent cartilage, you can damage cartilage. So don't think that pressing down further gives you a better result. It doesn't. It actually makes it worse. You just lay it down. And this prevents the skin from stretching, prevents you from making extra scar tissue, makes you feel nicer. You also don't want to change the tape too frequently, especially in the beginning. You want to lay this tape there and set it and forget it. You want this tape to be there pretty much all the time.
If you move it around too much, if you change the tape too frequently, you actually end up creating too much swelling. You don't want that to happen because every time the tape is lifted off, if you take it off too quickly, you can actually pull the skin up and create too much swelling. So you're going to take the skin up with the tape, and that's not a good thing. So change it just like a couple times a week, once a week, twice a week. As long as it's nice and dry looking like this, Leave it on. So again, look, it's a small piece of tape. It's not gigantic. It's not a big deal. You can live with it, walk around with it. It's perfectly fine. It's cute. Nobody can tell you've got tape on and it works really nicely. And you just change it about every three or four days. Now, after a few months goes by, you can do it at nighttime, you can do it for flights. When you're flying somewhere, you can do that. Exercising, you can do that. But the first month to a month and a half, you want to change it very infrequently, just every three or four days. Put it on, leave it there for a few days and then take it off and then go from there. But after a couple months, you can use it as needed for air flights, for exercise or stuff like that.