How Can I Remove The Nasal Splint After My Rhinoplasty?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had a rhinoplasty done a week ago and my nose splint is still stuck tight despite my repeated showers and letting water run over my face. Do you have any suggestions that will help me remove it?

A: Sometimes the nasal splint gets very loose and other times it can be very adherent. But eventually there comes a time to try and remove it. That time would be tomorrow. If you want to try and do it, you start from the top to peel it down as that is here it is ‘open’ from a taping standpoint. The first thing you do is grab the wings of the metal splint and bend them up so they are flat. That will reveal all the tapes underneath it. Then you start to peel the tapes off from above by lifting them off the skin. this will create a loose dressing that is just peeled off down to the tip of the nose. This is where it will be the most adherent as the tapes wrap around the tip of the nose and are often partially stuck there by any dried blood in the nostril. You will not hurt anything as you keep peeling the dressing forward (I did not say that it was comfortable in doing so), you just have to be slow to get all the tapes off from around the tip of the nose.