But it has to be an excellent virtual consultation. (I'll base my answer on how we handle our out-of-town and out-of-country patients.)If you live outside of the United States, for example, and want to have surgery in the US, it's terribly impractical, and unnecessary, to narrow your choice of surgeons by traveling all across the US, visiting doctors in person. In this field, you can see who might be excellent by seeing his before and after photos.Then, you send your photos to the doctor, along with your comments. The doctor makes some morphs, to show what he thinks is possible with surgery in his hands.You look at his before and after photos, to see whether he has been able to accomplish for others what you want for yourself.And more. See the "Learn more" link at the bottom of my post.If the changes seem, from the photos, to be meaningfully large enough, and predictable enough, the surgeon schedules an operation for you, with an in-person consultation the day before surgery. At that consultation, both you and the surgeon have veto powers over going ahead with surgery the next day. The surgeon might decline, because on physical exam he doesn't think he can make the changes he hoped. You might decline because of any number of reasons. I do this all the time, and we have never failed to go to surgery the next day, probably because of making reasonable decisions of when we make arrangements like this.So it's a combination of the virtual consultation and the in-person consult after surgery has been scheduled. You can also use the virtual consultation just to narrow down your choices, and then have fewer doctors to go visit.Be sure to read the section in the "Learn more" link on how to stay out of trouble while searching for a rhinoplasty surgeon, and how to tell whether your previous surgeon should be performing your revision. You should only have surgery if you are able to make yourself very confident in your surgeon's skills. Read that page very carefully. Most plastic surgeons are quite poor at this operation, and I believe my advice will go a long way toward keeping you safe.
