Gave me a nose that didn’t suit my face

There’s no denying that Dr Janjua is talented, but from the beginning of my journey things were off. I should have trusted my intuition. The office seemed diorganized, and on two different occasions that I called them I had a new surgery time which I only learned after asking them to confirm my original surgery time. Each time they acted like it was no big deal, but no one had informed me and they seemed to brush it off as if it was no big deal that they kept saying different times (one of the times was about 2 hours earlier then when I was initially scheduled).

One of Dr. Janjua’s biggest flaws is that he uses terms like “small” “medium” and “large” when it comes to describing changes instead of using numbers. He doesn’t tell you how many mm he’s planning to remove from each side during alarplasty, which is very key. Even 2mm is a HUGE difference.

The day of my in person consultation, everything felt rushed. He seemed to always be in a rush, likely cause he does multiple surgeries a day.

Before surgery I told him I was scared of looking pinched. Instead of ensuring me that I wouldn’t, he just says “on the day of surgery we will decide how much to take off.” BIG mistake. That is not something that should be taken lightly, and he should’ve told me ways to ensure that I didn’t look pinched. He never talked numbers through the procedure, just told me to figure out if I wanted a “small medium or large change” by using Q-Tips to push my nostrils in, which isn’t an accurate way to show what you’ll actually look like post surgery by any means.

While doing research for a revision surgery to fix my nightmare, I found out that a large change shouldn’t even be an option during alarplasty. To Dr. Janjua, a large change seems to be 5mm off of each side. (He claims he took 5mm off each side in my post operative report, but after measuring the pieces which they let me keep in a jar with preservative solution, it seems like 7-8 mm).

And even if a patient requests a large change, you shouldn’t take 5mm off each side knowing you have previous patients that are suffering after that much reduction, as well as other surgeons unanimously agreeing online that 5mm on each side is an over agressive reduction. Almost every doctor I consulted for a revision told me that 5mm was very agressive. As a doctor, you shouldn’t go in guns blazing and reduce your patient to nothing. Pushing nostrils in with Q-Tips does nothing to show how ridiculous the nostrils would look with that much reduction. And a better job should be done to inform patients about how important the curvature of the nostril is, and how much curvature they could lose with such a big reduction in which you’re removing so much sidewall (which I wasn’t aware he would be removing sidewall.)

More advice, don’t tell a patient “that’s not enough” during their consultation in terms of a small change, when it comes to nostril narrowing that you claim is irreversible, especially for a thick skin patient, as the more you remove, the significantly worst the scarring is (which also was not emphasized to me.) Hearing the words “that’s not enough” contributed to me thinking I needed a huge change. This is the most damaging thing I’ve ever been through in my life.

It’s clear that Dr. Janjua didn’t understand my ethnic nose. He gave me a nose that didn’t suit my face. He didn’t emphasize how big of a difference nostrils make in the face, and also didn’t individualize a plan for my nose during our consultation. Instead, he gave me a cookie cutter nose.

My nostrils were so small that I couldn’t fit my fingers in them. After looking at the numbers on the post operative report, to my surprise he removed more than half of my nostrils.

Knowing that people constantly call your office and ask if it can be reversed (I realized once I called), why would you still make such big changes?

In the future, I ask that Dr. Janjua throroughly emphasize to patients that this is “irreversible” and advise them about how big of a decision this is. He dishes out alarplastys like they’re candy, seems to take them very lightly, encounters unhappy patients, and then still continues to give over agressive reductions. I was fooled by all the good reviewers, but it seems that most patients are way too traumatized or ashamed to write a review after their experience, or get threatened with legal action/get their reviews taken down.

For any patient thinking of getting this operation, I advise that you do your research and make sure you’re on the same page with your surgeon, as nostrils are one of the most difficult things to bring back in surgery once they’re gone. This surgery has left me literally and mentally scarred, and I wouldn’t wish this kind of pain on my worst enemy. While it is true that Dr. Janjua is kind and has great bedside manner, there are many things about his approach to alarplasty that he needs to change.