What is the rate of rhinoplasty revisions needed?

This has often been quoted as a revision rate procedure and is indicative of patient expectations, surgeon's surgical expertise, inability to change certain anatomic features, healing tendencies,etc. With a board certified surgeon, you are certain to recieve surgery with an individual who's training is supervised and credentialed.

Interesting topic and question. The rate of revision rhinoplasty nationwide is a difficult number to accurately quantify. This is due to the fact that patients historically tend to see physicians of different training backgrounds and abilities making it difficult to obtain accurate statistics. For instance, I'm boarded by the American Board of Otolaryngology (ENT) as well as the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and have practiced nothing but facial plastic surgery since 1988. My revision rate hovers somewhere between 3-5% but that includes all patients that I take back to the operating room. The vast majority have a minor revision done under local anesthesia that typically takes less than 45 minutes with the most common "revision" being shaving down the rhinion. The rhinion is the area of the nose where the cartilage and bone merge and is the growth center of the nose; I tell my patients that at times they will grow cartilage and/or bone in this area 3-6 months post op and we'll need to address it. The other less common revision is in patients that retain supratip edema (the area immediately above the tip) and in these patients if steroids and taping do not resolve the problem aggressive scar tissue removal will usually address the problem. This is typically done after a year to allow as much healing to take place as possible. This problem is rare and tends to be more common in patients with thick sebaceous skin who have had an external approach.

To lessen your chances of needing a major revision seek a surgeon board certified by the American Board of Facial Plastic Surgery or the American Board of Plastic Surgery who has years of experience performing rhinoplasty and can show you many of their photos (which you find attractive). See 2-3 surgeons and pick the one you feel most comfortable with. Even surgeons with these boards may not do much rhinoplasty so ask how often they perform the procedure, what is their particular specialty and how long have they specialized. Experience is a great teacher. Finally be wary of physicians that advertize excessively as the best surgeons are usually busy due to word of mouth and reputation and find they need to market themselves modestly.