Are surgeons held accountable?

I would suggest sitting down with your surgeon and discussing all your concerns and options. You did not submit photos of before and after nor mentioned the time since surgery. However, most surgeons want to give their patients the best results and understand revisions may be needed. A lawsuit may make things much more difficult for you, and also leaving bad surgeon reviews. Once sued, your surgeon will not want to touch you, and others may also be less willing. Go back and discuss your concerns with your surgeon.

In a nutshell, the surgeon is responsible for your overall well-being after surgery, including taking care of complications or potentially offering revisions when indicated.
On the other hand, patients are responsible for choosing providers and providers very substantially in regards to skill, experience, personal philosophy and how they practice medicine.
This is very much caveat emptor situation a.k.a. buyer beware.
Somethings after surgery may happen that are not related to the skill and experience of the provider and some will be.
Likewise, some issues may not have an easy fix, and there is no revision surgery indicated even if the patient has problems or concerns.
Your situation is complex and you bring up a lot of issues.
Without seeing completes set of proper before and after pictures, we can’t begin to make an assessment.
I always recommended. Patient have multiple in person consultations before selecting providers or considering scheduling surgery.
It is the patient’s responsibility to vet the provider.
This means you should have a good understanding of that provider ability to perform the procedure well on a consistent basis.
I recommend patient do that by asking each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures of previous patients with similar facial characteristics to your own.
highly experienced surgeons should have access to hundreds or preferably thousands of before and after pictures to choose from.
It’s also a good idea to ask surgeons what the revision policy is, what their most common indication for doing revision surgeries, and what their revision rate is.
You should also ask yourself if you’re unhappy with the outcome of the procedure from your current provider do you really want that provider doing your revision work?Threatening surgeons usually doesn’t end up working very well and mounting a lawsuit is extremely emotionally draining on both parties, and enormous waste of money for attorney fees and cosmetic surgery cases unless something egregious happened. The doctors usually win.
You can certainly try to negotiate to get a partial refund, which is probably the best you can help for.
Again Threatening providers is usually not going to get doctors to want to cooperate, but your best source of leverage may be the doctors reputation using social media. Start by saying you were hoping to leave positive reviews then go through all the things that left you disappointed.
If you’re provider showed you specific before and after pictures during your consultation, can ask them to compare your results to the pictures they showed you Implying that your provider failed to promise results consistent with what they had described.
Some providers are smart enough to negotiate with unhappy patients to work out something that is fair or at least extend an all branch.
For example, it’s unlikely your surgeon will pay the fee for another doctor to do revision work.
It may be possible to get part of your surgeons fee back if you negotiate well and your provider has the insight to realize that keeping you happy is to their advantage.
When providers refund money, they often ask patients to sign a release of liability. That usually includes an agreement that patient will not write negative things about the doctor.
Some malpractice insurance companies, recommend or insist that surgeons do this every time they give patients some a refund.
Be professional, try not to get emotional and negotiate like this is a business deal.
A partial refund is better than no refund.
If you want your doctor to do revision work, then you should simply bring that up. Before asking for a revision, you want to get confirmation that revision surgery is appropriate and that your surgeon isn’t going to make things worse.
Revision work can be more technically difficult than the primary procedure so recognize that sometimes revisions don’t make things better and they can in fact make things worse.
Each person will form scars that are unique to their own genetic makeup.
Some people simply scar worse than others.
In regards to facial symmetry, you had facial symmetry before the procedure.
All people have a facial asymmetry.
Most people have a substantial amount of asymmetry and are often unaware of this before surgery.
Some people will have changes in skin sensation and that is not something the surgeon can control.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD