When Choosing Rhinoplasty Surgeon, How Many Rhinoplasties Per Year Is Ideal for a Reputable Surgeon?

Excellent question.  It is important to choose a surgeon with rhinoplasty experience, knowledge, and expertise.  The American Society of Plastic Surgeons states that the average amount of rhinoplasties per year are 11 per surgeon.  It is also important to choose a surgeon who understands and respects not only the cosmetic external anatomy, but also the internal functional anatomy of the nose.  The nasal airway must be maintained or improved during rhinoplasty surgery.  Assure that your surgeon has experience in improving appearance and function.  

The key element in becoming an expert is not necessarily how many rhinoplasties you perform per year, it’s how many you do well and how your Experience and Expertise give you Good Judgment. This requires many years of experience. Becoming a true expert probably takes 10,000 hours of study and focus on teaching, learning, and performing rhinoplasty over many years. I perform over 200 rhinoplasties per year and over 50% of these are secondary rhinoplasties and are more complicated and difficult as much of the structural framework is missing. Choose your surgeon wisely so you don’t have to undergo a secondary rhinoplasty as this is the most complicated and most difficult operative procedure in plastic surgery.

Rhinoplasty is the primary focus of my practice, so I get this question a lot. The problem with the question, though, is that the patient has no way to verify the number the surgeon or his staff gives them. A surgeon can claim he does 20, 50, 100, 500 a year...but he could be lying through his teeth. There's no independent way to check.

And while experience is very important, quality is much more important. Some surgeons may do more, but are still no good at it and don't learn from their mistakes. Others may do fewer, but are exceptionally gifted at it. Smart, famous, popular, or expensive also doesn't necessarily mean good.

I usually suggest that patients get a sense of the surgeon's experience by looking at the relative weighting of procedures on his/her website. If there are a ton of breast augmentations and a couple of noses, you can guess where the experience lies.

All the best,

--DCP

I'm not all that convinced that my colleagues know exactly how many procedures they have performed in one year, let alone the different types. I believe that results speak louder than words. My advice to you is that you make as many appointments as possible to see as many before and after pictures. Most post their best work on their web sites. You should also consider years in practice and comfort level with the surgeon. If it were me, I would ask surgical nurses-they would be the only ones with a true and accurate version of the truth. Good luck on your research!

Best wishes, Dr. H

I agree with many of the other posted answers.

How many years has this doctor been perfecting his skills in rhinoplasty

Does he have experience with reconstruction and complex secondary rhinoplasties

what type of ethnic rhinoplasties are they experienced in

do they have experience with bone and cartilage grafts

do they enjoy doing this procedure.

More the better. However, the number of rhinoplasty surgeries will vary considerably from one area to another. The surgeon needs to have the requisite training, demonstrate the technical skill and artistic talent through his work, and understand your objectives.

A good number of rhinoplasties performed by an active and busy rhinoplasty surgeon is in the order of 200 or more per year.  This level of experience enables a surgeon to offer rhinoplasty expertise.  In addition to making sure that the surgeon has performed thousands of rhinoplasty surgeries, you should like the results shown in their before and after photo gallery.

The average board-certified plastic surgeon performs about 15 rhinoplasty is per year, or a little over one per month. What's more important is developing a dialogue with the plastic surgeon in regards to what your concerns are and then understanding his explanation of what he feels is necessary to correct the problems. It's also a good idea to look at before and after pictures of some of his patients, as well as being able to speak to some patients. Rhinoplasty has a functional as well as a cosmetic component to the procedure. There are some physicians who concentrate more on the functional aspect and others who are more expert on the cosmetic aspect, although in many procedures these functions are intertwined.

In larger population areas the surgeon who performs over 100 rhinoplasties per year is often the one whose community appreciates his good results. If the surgeons results are sub par patients will not come unless the doctor has an active marketing effort behind him. The one who consistently gets good results will often stay busy in his/her community because of word of mouth. If you have an opportunity to see examples of your doctors work and it shows improvment in apperance that is natural looking rather than an operated look, and this practitioner is busy as well, it speaks well for his/her skill with rhinoplasty. Place more weight on quality and aesthetic judgment rather than quantity and absence of aesthetic judgment.

Important questions to ask before committing to a Rhinoplasty surgeon:

1. Not only how many per year, but how many years has the surgeon been doing rhinoplasties? Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers" makes the point that 10,000 total hours of practice is needed to gain expertise in anything, be it hockey, piano playing or performing rhinoplasties!

2. Is the nose a primary focus of the doctors practice, or just an "add-on"? The best breast surgeon in the world may not be the best one for rhinoplasty.

3. Does the doctor have specialized training in the function of the nose as well as the aesthetics of the nose? A board certified Facial Plastic Surgeon (ABFPRS) will be thoroughly trained in both form and function. Many ABPS surgeons are also excellent in rhinoplasty, but look for those whose primary focus is rhinoplasty.

4. Finally, and maybe most important, do you share the same aesthetic vision as your surgeon? Look at as many before and after photos of that doctors work. Look at noses like yours, not just hump removals! See if you can speak with other patients for references. Computer imaging, 3D or plain photography can be a great communication tool in you and your surgeon understanding each others goals.