Are nose jobs for people with body dysmorphia?

Why nose jobs are so common:Historically, once surgeons were able to perform rhinoplasties with a good success rate and with a great safety track record, it became less "risky" for patients to consider it.  Every decision you make in life is a trade-off between risks and rewards.  We fly planes, but we recognize they may crash.  We get into cruise ships, while we know they can sink.  We drive cars, and everyone knows about car accidents.  If every nose job turned out terrible, no one would want one.  The reason so many people get them is that most of them turn out fine.Is BDD treated with a nose job:Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD for short) is a real psychiatric condition.  There is no surgery for a psychiatric condition.  BDD patients would not be happy in the end, even if the surgery was objectively a major success.  Therefore, plastic surgeons would never perform a rhinoplasty on a patient if they think the patient might have BDD.What is it about the nose that makes people insecure:Are all the people who get a tattoo on their arm insecure about their arm?  Are all the folks who get a nice hair-cut insecure about their hair?  How about people who get pierced belly buttons - are they insecure about their belly buttons?  I would submit to you that the reason people seek to have rhinoplasty is not that they are insecure about their nose.  They see it as a part of their external image, and they wish to appear to themselves and others as beautiful (or handsome) as they can.  And if there are surgeons who have the expertise to perform this task, safely and with a reasonable success rate, who's to say who's right and who's wrong.

I am not sure if you are asking about body dysmorphic disorder, which is a pathologic condition for some people. Despite what many people see in the popular press, there are relatively few patients who have an overwhelming and distorted view of their body image.

prombom17, rhinoplasty surgery is one of the most technical procedures there are for a plastic surgeon. it requires many years of retrospective review by the surgeon and a degree of specialty and technical expertise that many fine difficult to master. the truth is there are many surgeons who do rhinoplasties but there are not many who are truly very good at.  Wanting to improve your appearance is very natural.  We look in the mirror every morning to see what we can do before we leave to make ourselves look better.  Body dysmorphic patients look at themselves in the mirror and no matter what they do or have done are never happy with their appearance. even the best surgeon in the world cannot make a patient like this happy.  I have no idea why your friends have reacted the way they have to their procedures.  I can only tell you that my patients do not have a similar reaction.  In any event it is my advice not to seek any procedure or have anything done until you are completely happy with the decision and the person you have chosen.Good luck!!!

You pose an interesting question. Why do so many people dislike their nose, because they see it all the time and noses have many parts that can be changed to make someone more attractive. That being said, you need to have realistic expectations as to what a nose job can and can't do. You are still the same person and only your external appearance is changed. If you truly have body dysmorphic syndrome, you should not have surgery. I can't tell you why there are negative comments from patients, most of mine are happy with their nasal surgery.

Pretty obviously, by definition there is some "dysmorphia" if you want to change something about your body. It really is a matter of degree. This is one of the most critical issues facing rhinoplasty surgeons. Is the patient's degree of concern out of proportion to the degree of deformity? How predictably can we expect to correct the deformity? Are their expectations of precision/perfection too high?It is a balancing act and can take many years of experience to become very good at this portion of the evaluation and even then sometimes we are wrong.In general, it is my opinion that an experienced skilled rhinoplasty surgeon will do a good job of letting a patient know whether or not the surgeon feels they are a likely to be satisfied afterward. If not, then they will not operate on them.