Good Rhinoplasty/septoplasty Experience (Broken Nose)

I broke my nose when I was young and always had issues with it. I had a lot of trouble breathing and I was pretty self conscious about how it looked. I don't think most people even noticed it looked broken but it was really obvious to me and bugged me a lot.

It took a long time for me to get the courage up to finally talk to a plastic surgeon about my problem. I always had the mentality I should just be happy with what I had and be thankful I am healthy. I also read horror stories about people who had the procedure done and had really bad results. So the combination of those two things made it a really difficult decision. I finally realized that it was affecting my self esteem in a really negative way and it was worth taking the risk.

I did a lot of research on how to choose a good surgeon, read a ton of people’s reviews on their experiences, and researched the possible outcomes of the surgery. I think doing extensive research to find a good surgeon is the most important part of having a good outcome. I narrowed it down to two surgeons and went in for consultations. Both surgeons I talked were great but I ended up choosing the one I did because we saw more eye to eye on what I wanted to have done. He was really professional, not super personable, but his credentials were top notch which I thought was the most important thing. He was honest with me and told me not to expect perfection.

The weeks after the surgery were a bit of a roller coaster. The first week was pretty brutal having to sleep sitting up and having all the junk up your nose. It really wasn't that painful just more uncomfortable like having a really bad cold. The shape changed every day with the swelling and you would never know what to expect the following day, I just tried not to think about it.

I am about four weeks out now and I am pretty happy with how it looks. I realize it will continue to change some in the next year but I am pretty confident it will continue to look better as the swelling comes down. Also, I can already notice a huge difference in my breathing when I take a deep breath.

Anyway overall it wasn't a bad experience and I am fairly happy with the results. My advice to anyone that is considering doing it is to do your research on your surgeon (credentials, certifications, reviews, and legal actions), realize there is risk involved and make sure the risk is worth the reward, and realize you’re probably not going to get perfection but an improvement.