Septo/Rhino with Dr. Grigoryants!

After years of thinking about rhinoplasty and detesting my nose, I'm finally out of school and making a salary that has allowed me to save up for the procedure. I've read so many reviews on realself and elsewhere, and I've decided that I definitely want to go with Dr. Grigoryants. When I initially had my email consultation with him (I'm out of state), I was told that he wasn't scheduling surgeries for six months, and so I figured that I may not be able to have him as my doctor. I'm considering a job change and was hoping to schedule surgery in a month or so, before I would potentially be in a new job, maybe even all the way on the east coast, with different vacation policies. It would also be nice to not have to have the awkward "Hi, New Boss. I need two weeks off for a nose job" conversation. Anyway, fast forward to this morning, when Dr. G's office called me to offer me a surgery date in mid-September. I honestly do not know what to do. I can get the days off from work, I have most of the money (though it's basically my entire savings), and I've done a ton of research. I have to let them know first thing in the morning whether I will be taking the September surgery date. Was anybody this trigger-shy, or do you think I'm rushing it? Neither my gf nor my family is very supportive of me going through with the procedure, so any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm going in for another consultation tomorrow morning. This time, it will be with Dr. Schlesinger in Honolulu. As of right now, I'm almost convinced that I really want to go with Dr. Grigoryants, but one more consultation won't hurt. Also, if I stay at home in Hawaii, I will be able to devote more energy to healing rather than flying back and forth to California. My gf would be able to be there to hold my hand, and the overall cost would be reduced because I won't have to travel. Then again, and oddly enough, doctors in Hawaii seem to be even more expensive than the more experienced ones in LA. Anyway, I'll update more after my consultation!

Long post alert!
So I went in for my third rhinoplasty consultation today, this time with Dr. Larry Schlesinger in Honolulu. I want to try to keep this review free from any personal judgments about him, though I will say that I think our personalities didn't mesh well.

Dr. Schlesinger asked me a little bit about myself and which procedure I was interested in. He didn't ask me what I wanted to change about my nose or what I liked about my nose. He went straight into the exam, and his first words were, "Well, the #1 reason why your nose is big is because your chin is too small." Obviously, he could have phrased this a little bit more nicely, but whatever, I appreciate honesty and even bluntness. Unfortunately, it was only downhill from here.

First off, I'd like to acknowledge that the last Hawaii Dr. I consulted with suggested a chin implant. He was slightly pushy with his suggestions, even after I told him I really wasn't interested, and I was definitely turned off by it. That guy was NOTHING compared to Dr. Schlesinger.

Dr. Schlesinger immediately grabbed his samples of chin implants and launched into what he dubbed "the educational portion" of the consultation. He ONLY spoke about the chin implant procedure, in spite of me repeatedly telling him that I was honestly only interested in rhinoplasty. I told him that I was a lawyer, not a model, and that I wasn't terribly concerned about having the perfect angles in my profile. He just kept going on and on about how deficient my chin was, and how even if I found the perfect nose doctor and got the perfect nose, I would still come back to his office and ask for a chin implant. He said that doing a rhinoplasty on me without a chin implant would be "inappropriate." I told him I didn't have a problem with my chin, and that my main concern was my nose. Then he grabbed a book from his shelf to show me pictures of what "a chin is SUPPOSED to look like." Thanks, Dr. Schlesinger, but I haven't been isolated from all other humans up until this very moment and consequently, I have actually seen what chins look like. At this point, I told him I was uncomfortable and asked to leave. To his credit, he took a rather awkward pause, said "yeah, of course" and shook my hand.

Here's my issue: Surgery always carries a certain degree of risk, especially when it involves implanting foreign objects into your body. Elective surgery, by its very nature, is medically unnecessary. I think that if a patient has repeatedly expressed that they are uninterested in a medically unnecessary surgery, then the doctor should back off. Yes, Dr. Schlesinger is a doctor and I am not. And yes, I greatly appreciate his honesty and candor. However, trying to convince a patient to change a part of herself that she had previously harbored NO insecurity about, after she has repeatedly told you that she is not interested, is at best rude and at worst, medically irresponsible.

PS: I'd like to clarify that I am not a mutant. I have a chin. It's small because I'm Scottish/Irish and my people don't have chins. And you know what? I'm totally cool with that.

PPS: I will say that rhinoplasty is only about 4% of Dr. Schlesinger's practice (he mostly does boobs and "mommy makeovers," a term I find appalling but whatever), and he WAS very good about naming California doctors that I could consult with who had more rhino experience. However, he had never even heard of Dr. Grigoryants.

PPPS: This experience solidified my decision to go with Dr. Grigoryants. Bedside manner is extremely important to me, and Dr. Schlesinger was condescending, arrogant, and rude. Dr. Grigoryants, on the other hand, found a way to be straight-forward about my nose's issues and even raised issues of symmetry that the other two doctors hadn't even noticed, and he was able to do so in a tactful way. To top it off, Dr. Grigoryants made it a point to tell me that I had a beautiful face, which obviously is just something he says, but it was really nice of him. He also didn't even mention my mutant chin. Dr. G. all the way!