Doctor Refused to Give Me Rhinoplasty, Is This Normal? (photo)

 

There are many reasons doctors refuse to operate on patients

 

There is a saying " I would much rather a patient be made at me for not operating on them then for operating on them"

 

But with that bit of philosophy aside here are some common reasons

 

1) Patient is not emotionally or medically appropriate to operate on

 

2) Doctor does not think he/she can make the patient happy because the patient seems to be the type of patient that can never be happy

 

3) Doctor thinks that the patient’s description of what is wrong is out of touch with reality and/or the patient’s description of what they want to look like is not something that can be achieved

 

4) There is literally nothing wrong with the patients feature and therefore no surgery is needed (this is relatively rare - how many truly perfect noses, faces, breasts are floating around out there)

 

5) there is something wrong with the feature (perhaps subtle) but the doctors does not feel comfortable or confident in their ability to fix it (when this is true in the doctors mind they but the patient in category 4 and try to convince the patient of that) with that said it is good that surgeons who do not feel comfortable or confident in dealing with subtle changes do attempt to make them. That is to say some surgeons will only operate on patients with gross deformities because they know no matter what they do they can make a positive difference. The stakes are higher when the defect is more subtle. More experienced surgeons are more likely to tackle these patients’ problems.

 

With that said you do not need to chase down a plastic surgeon. There are literally hundreds who will beat down your doors to operate on you.

 

Go visit some others in your community

 

If a lot of surgeons start to refuse surgery then you might fit into category 1, 2, 3

 

But based on your photo I would consider offering you a surgical plan after a consultation if you should up in my office. 

 

Interested in traveling to Austin? 

 

We make arrangements for out of town patients

 

It’s actually a good thing that a surgeon recognizes he may not be able to perform a surgery that will make you happy. Surgeons refuse to do surgery for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is because the patient has unrealistic expectations, or has placed great importance on perceived flaws that are not visible to the surgeon. Other times it is because the surgeon does not have enough experience to successfully achieve the desired results of the patient, or feels that achieving the result still would not make the patient happy. If one surgeon has refused you, you can always seek a second or third opinion. If the photograph that you posted is what you look like on the left, and what you want to achieve on the right, then it seems like your goals are reasonable and achievable.  I would definitely research board certified plastic surgeons or facial plastic surgeons who have experience with rhinoplasty and alar base excision. That is one particular procedure that is difficult to fix when done poorly, so you want to get it right the first time.

 

Refusing to operate on a patient can be a challenge for plastic surgeon.  He clearly did not feel confident that he could not make you happy.  His honesty should be respected, but you should seek opinions from other board-certified plastic surgeons before giving up.  Best of luck.