When Choosing Rhinoplasty Surgeon, How Many Rhinoplasties Per Year Is Ideal for a Reputable Surgeon?

asked 8 months ago by 3324anon
Latest answer by William Portuese, MD
Question viewed 264 times
Tags: choosing a surgeon

Its always recommended that a prospective surgeon is asked how many Rhinoplasty procedures he carries out in a year--but what is a "good" answer? 100 surgeries? 200?--more? I know this is only part of the selection process but I could use some advice. Thanks

10 answers to When Choosing Rhinoplasty Surgeon, How Many Rhinoplasties Per Year Is Ideal for a Reputable Surgeon?

More is better!

Important questions to ask before committing to a Rhinoplasty surgeon: 1. Not only how many per year, but how many years has the surgeon been doing rhinoplasties? Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers" makes the point that 10,000 total hours of practice is needed to gain expertise in anything, be it hockey, piano playing or performing rhinoplasties! 2. Is the nose a primary focus of the doctors practice, or just an "add-on"? The best breast surgeon in the world may not be... more

J. Charles Finn, MD
Raleigh-Durham Facial Plastic Surgeon

Is more really better?

I'm not all that convinced that my colleagues know exactly how many procedures they have performed in one year, let alone the different types. I believe that results speak louder than words. My advice to you is that you make as many appointments as possible to see as many before and after pictures. Most post their best work on their web sites. You should also consider years in practice and comfort level with the surgeon. If it were me, I would ask surgical nurses-they would be the... more

Gary M. Horndeski, MD
Houston Plastic Surgeon

Number of rhinoplasties a reputable surgeon performs per year

A good number of rhinoplasties performed by an active and busy rhinoplasty surgeon is in the order of 200 or more per year. This level of experience enables a surgeon to offer rhinoplasty expertise. In addition to making sure that the surgeon has performed thousands of rhinoplasty surgeries, you should like the results shown in their before and after photo gallery.

William Portuese, MD
Seattle Facial Plastic Surgeon

www.seattlefacial.com

Becoming an Expert in Rhinoplasty

The key element in becoming an expert is not necessarily how many rhinoplasties you perform per year, it’s how many you do well and how your Experience and Expertise give you Good Judgment. This requires many years of experience. Becoming a true expert probably takes 10,000 hours of study and focus on teaching, learning, and performing rhinoplasty over many years. I perform over 200 rhinoplasties per year and over 50% of these are secondary rhinoplasties and are more complicated and... more

Rod J. Rohrich, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

Experience is important.

The average board-certified plastic surgeon performs about 15 rhinoplasty is per year, or a little over one per month. What's more important is developing a dialogue with the plastic surgeon in regards to what your concerns are and then understanding his explanation of what he feels is necessary to correct the problems. It's also a good idea to look at before and after pictures of some of his patients, as well as being able to speak to some patients. Rhinoplasty has a functional as... more

Joseph M. Perlman, MD
Houston Plastic Surgeon

Rhinoplasty surgeon

Excellent question. It is important to choose a surgeon with rhinoplasty experience, knowledge, and expertise. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons states that the average amount of rhinoplasties per year are 11 per surgeon. It is also important to choose a surgeon who understands and respects not only the cosmetic external anatomy, but also the internal functional anatomy of the nose. The nasal airway must be maintained or improved during rhinoplasty surgery.... more

Etai Funk, MD
Houston Facial Plastic Surgeon

www.funkfacialplastics.com

How many rhinoplasties? There's no way to know.

Rhinoplasty is the primary focus of my practice, so I get this question a lot. The problem with the question, though, is that the patient has no way to verify the number the surgeon or his staff gives them. A surgeon can claim he does 20, 50, 100, 500 a year...but he could be lying through his teeth. There's no independent way to check. And while experience is very important, quality is much more important. Some surgeons may do more, but are still no good at it and don't learn... more

David C. Pearson, MD
Jacksonville Facial Plastic Surgeon

How to find or judge a good rhinoplasty surgeon

In larger population areas the surgeon who performs over 100 rhinoplasties per year is often the one whose community appreciates his good results. If the surgeons results are sub par patients will not come unless the doctor has an active marketing effort behind him. The one who consistently gets good results will often stay busy in his/her community because of word of mouth. If you have an opportunity to see examples of your doctors work and it shows improvment in apperance that is natural... more

Julian Henley, MD
New Haven Facial Plastic Surgeon

Rhinoplasty Experience: how much is enough?

I agree with many of the other posted answers. How many years has this doctor been perfecting his skills in rhinoplasty Does he have experience with reconstruction and complex secondary rhinoplasties what type of ethnic rhinoplasties are they experienced in do they have experience with bone and cartilage grafts do they enjoy doing this procedure.

Jed H. Horowitz, MD
Orange County Plastic Surgeon

When Choosing Rhinoplasty Surgeon, How Many Rhinoplasties Per Year Is Ideal for a Reputable Surgeon?

I have performed Rhinoplasty for over 20 years and it takes hundreds over many years to be proficient, IMHO. Rhinoplasty is very aesthetic as well so the plastic and cosmetic surgeon must have impeccable aesthetic judgement as well as the necessary technical training, experience and skill for everything to be at its best. There is no magic number....what takes one surgeon 500 to perfect, another surgeon may get there sooner or later.