Do You Really Need a Revision Rhinoplasty?

Happy Sunday, everybody. So there was something on my mind that I just wanted to talk to you about, and it's about revision. So for 20 years of doing rhinoplasty and revision rhinoplasty and being in practice, I have seen all sorts of patients. I can write a book on it. I mean, you name it, I've seen it.

And you get these patients that come in for revisions who have truly been botched. They did not do their research. They ended up going to an average, below average surgeon, or maybe even somebody who was above average, but didn't have the skills, the tools to deal with complex anatomy, and they ended up with disasters. Well, that's a different story.

On the other side of the table, you have patients that actually did their research, or they were lucky enough to find a specialist, had a rhinoplasty, and ended up with a good nose job, but their expectations are just unrealistic. For example, somebody with very thick skin went to a good specialist, ended up with a very nice transformation, but just expects her nose to be dramatically different. It's just not going to happen. This is the best it's going to be. Or maybe their anatomy was not ideal, their healing was not ideal, and there are some subtle imperfections.

In these situations, again, you did your research, went to a great surgeon. Don't second guess it. Don't turn around and say my surgeon botched me, because trust me, I'm not one that's going to sugarcoat things. If somebody truly botched you, I'm going to call it. But if somebody did a great job, I'm also going to call it. I'm going to tell you that you have to adjust your expectations.

Imagine this. Imagine you walk into an operating room with anatomy that's very unfavorable. Cartilages that are either too stiff and brittle or too weak and floppy. A septum that is too deviated, too crushed, too scarred, too small, too thin, too floppy. Skin that's either very thin or very thick. These are unfavorable situations. Now, if you have a good specialist, they can give you a nice improvement. You may get a 70, 80, even 90 percent improvement. It won't be perfect, but you get a nice improvement. But guess what? If you're unlucky enough to go to an average, below average, or even slightly above average surgeon, you may have ended up with a disaster, an absolute disaster.

So please do your research ahead of time. Find the great surgeon who's a true specialist in the field that you want. When it comes to rhinoplasty, it's extremely important. And then afterwards, you've got to trust the process. Trust the surgeon. Trust their word. If you trusted them in the beginning, continue that process. Don't all of a sudden give up hope.

The worst thing is a lot of surgeons tend to want to drum up business by throwing other surgeons under the bus. That's a bad thing. So if you ended up with a nice transformation, a 70, 80, 90 percent improvement, and you had really bad anatomy, don't just trust some average Joe plastic surgeon who says, oh, he could have done better, I'll do better. He can't. They can't. You ended up with a nice improvement. Leave good enough alone. Let it be, because going back into it, it's not going to get any better. So find a specialist that can analyze your nose and is not just trying to sell you a nose job. You don't want a salesperson, you want a doctor.