After Otoplasty: Important Dos and Don'ts for an Optimal Recovery
Ear surgery is a simple procedure that delivers dramatic results. To ensure you get the most out of otoplasty, follow these easy tips during your recovery.
Having surgery can be exciting and quite nerve-wracking at the same time. You’ll have a list of tasks to do and a few to avoid before heading to our office for your pre-surgical examination. Though postponing surgery is rare, Dr. Guida and his care team want you to know that your safety is at the top of their list. Here are a few essential things you need to know about the day of surgery:
When you arrive at our office, you’ll be greeted by our staff and shown to a room where you can change into a gown. Before heading into the operating room, Dr. Guida and his team will perform a few assessments to make sure you are in optimal health before we get started.
Your care team will want to know what you’ve eaten, what medications you’ve taken since the night before, and if you have any long-term health conditions. We’ll listen to your lungs, check your heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and breathing rate. These simple assessments help us know that you’re in optimal health before your procedure. Sometimes, we might discover something in our evaluation that indicates you’re at a higher than average rate for complications. When this happens, Dr. Guida will take the information and decide if it’s safe to proceed with your procedure. Postponing surgery isn’t common. However, here a few times it might be best to wait:
If you have hypertension, having an elevated blood pressure on the day of surgery can increase your risk of severe complications like congestive heart failure, stroke, and heart attack. Our team checks your blood pressure to make sure that it isn’t too high.
Your surgery with Dr. Guida is elective, which means it doesn’t have to be done right away to keep you healthy. Having an elevated blood pressure is a reason to reschedule your procedure to another day. In the time between the two surgical dates, you’ll need to meet with your primary doctor to make sure you’re on the best medications to keep your blood pressure under control.
If you have diabetes, our care team will ask about medications and your blood sugar check on the day or two before surgery. We know that diabetes can increase your risk of heart and kidney complications, slow healing, and infection after surgery, so we want to take extra precautions before we begin. Surgery places additional stress on your body that can cause your blood sugar levels to rise and put you at even higher risk of surgery complications. If you struggle with low blood sugar, this might also give us a reason to postpone your procedure, in rare circumstances.
Healing quickly after surgery takes a robust immune system. If you’re running fevers, have a sinus infection, the flu, or other respiratory infections on the day of the surgery, we might need to reschedule. You’ll need to get over the illness and then we get you back on our books for your treatment.
While you’re in our care, safety is our number one priority. Though we are excited to help you achieve the look you want, we also want you to be healthy and recover quickly. If you’ve been considering plastic surgery, give our Carnegie Hill, New York, or Staten Island office a call, or book online to schedule your consultation.
