Surgeon Selection - Would the lack of recent images be a reasonable cause for hesitation?

Hello and thank you for your question. I highly recommend that my patients focus much more on real longterm before and after photographs rather than 3D imaging.   I encounter so many patients in my practice who see me for revision rhinoplasty who previously had surgery elsewhere who feel like they were mislead into surgery by surgeons who relied heavily on 3D imaging without adequate real before and after pictures to back it up. Photoshop is easy but real surgery is very different.

I always recommend that you carefully evaluate your surgeon’s online before and after gallery on their website for both quality and quantity of results. Make sure that there are hundreds of real before and after pictures which demonstrate long-term follow up results with standardized lighting and standardized background. If your surgeon is posting mostly on-table results without real long-term follow up results, that is usually a major red flag. If a surgeon is posting mostly just splint removal day videos without longterm follow-up pictures, or all patient selfie’s without real longterm in-office formal pictures that can also be a red flag. Long-term results are much more meaningful than on table results or 1 week post-op results. Selfie’s can also be fun to look at, but these can often have a filter and do not represent true longterm results because of this and are not as valuable as real longterm in-office before and after photographs on your surgeon’s website with standardized lighting and standardized backgrounds. I recommend that you seek consultation with a qualified board-certified rhinoplasty surgeon who can evaluate you in person.

Best wishes and good luck.

Richard G. Reish, M.D.
Harvard-trained plastic surgeon

Providing that your surgeon has significant expertise and you have developed a trust, issue of “old photos” should be irrelevant. Surgeon who was able to provide satisfactory result in rhinoplasty 10 years ago can for sure do the same today. Not every surgeon, especially those who have proven their value for long period of time, may need to advertise using social media and fancy photos. I think that you are in good hands. Good luck.