Exactly What I Wanted from a Doctor Who is Leaps and Bounds Above the Rest - Beverly Hills, CA

I had an ethnic rhinoplasty procedure with the wonderful Dr Ashkan Ghavami in early autumn 2012. It was a decision I made after about 4 months of consideration and several consultations with other surgeons. I am based on the East Coast and had initially hoped to find a surgeon here that would have the skill and aesthetic vision to give me the nose I was looking for. Kismet sent me to LA for a long week, and the day before I left I made a spontaneous call to Dr. Ghavami’s office to see if I could meet him for a same-day consult. He specializes in ethnic rhinoplasty, and as a mixed-race girl I wanted a doctor who got my aesthetic and would not work against it. They made it happen. And in complete contrast to the plastic surgeons I had already consulted with, I was met in his office with such warmth from his staff, a very genuine and helpful group, Rose and Tricia especially. And I was quick to note the happy and gorgeous follow-up patients waiting to see him and bantering with staff. It was refreshing seeing happy people in a plastic surgeons office! If you have been on consults, you know what I am talking about.

It has always been extremely important to me to listen to my intuition, even when logic might suggest otherwise, and it has never failed me. I remember telling my partner as we left the office, “This feels right. He’s the one.” Dr. Ghavami is confident in his craftsmanship, and I say confident because it is nothing like the cockiness or condescension I’ve encountered with some surgeons. I have an Ivy League-background in medicine and come from a family of surgeons, which means I did my diligence, read the literature and knew the risks. It also means I have much higher standards for bedside manner because I understand that while skill matters, having a doctor who listens to you, shares the same aesthetic vision AND can execute on it is the holy grail, and in elective procedures you should never accept anything less. I never made mention of any of the above during my consults because it was important to me that the treatment I received was based on an honest interaction that would happen with any patient.

Your relationship with your doctor, who will literally have his hands inside your body, should never begin with less consideration or respect than you would expect from someone else who knows you intimately. Treat your consult like a first date, because that’s exactly what it is. And I know this is a tall order because most surgeons don’t have the best social skills/demeanor, but do the best you can to find the one that will give you what you want. I personally don’t care for a lot of figurative handholding (though I literally needed it when those sutures came out!) or need a lot of reassurance (though I heard from another patient they do a fine job of offering that if you do) so Dr. Ghavami’s style of warmth cushioned with efficiency, facts, and professionalism works for me. I get my cuddles elsewhere.

My goals for my surgery were to 1) augment my bridge, 2) refine my tip and 3) reduce alar flaring, basically all the essentials of an ethnic rhinoplasty. In all, my nose was given a smaller footprint, a beautiful nasolabial angle and a great profile, which was completely what I wanted. I still look like me, which was a relief because I thought I looked great before, but through this procedure I feel like my face was brought into ideal proportion and as a friend put it, ‘It looks like the nose you should have been born with’. Dr. Ghavami did ALL of this without an implant. He used my ear cartilage, septal cartilage, fascia and his craftmanship. I have to touch on this point because it was so important to me and I’m sure to others reading this.

No doctor will argue that the placement of foreign, inorganic materials in your body poses an equal or lesser risk of rejection over use of your OWN tissues. Something as major as a breast implant, or as minor as a belly ring, can all be rejected by the body. Those types of rejections are generally easily concealed and solved with removal. But your nose is front and center, and there is nowhere to hide if something goes wrong with an implant in your nose. I personally found one doctor in NYC’s insistence on using a Medphor implant to create the “ideal” outcome to be both delusional and lazy. An implant should be a last resort if sufficient tissues are unavailable, not Plan A. Unless of course an artificially palpable, vertical bridge with the increased (however small) risk of rejection and/or perforation is a look you are going for. That is my opinion coupled with fact. Dr. Ghavami made it clear to me that he could give me what I was looking for without an implant. I am still in shock as to how natural (because it is) it feels and looks. He simply does amazing work.

Luckily, the logic and connection were in sync with this decision, and I have not had a moment of regret in choosing Dr. Ghavami for my rhino. When it comes to something like my body or my face, I would fly across the world if it meant going to the best person for the job. It is a luxury most people don’t have, I know, and in total the cost of travel + the procedure was not cheap, but if you make the decision to do it, it is so important that money not be the deciding factor. Save and wait. As the adage goes, you get what you pay for, especially if you are looking for a specialized outcome.

Lower on the scale of importance but I still found to be an added pleasure: his office where you will have your consult and follow-ups is run by a staff of great women, it is clean and beautifully decorated. My surgery took place in a separate facility which was beautiful and soothing and a wonderful place to wake-up after my procedure. Very caring operating team.

There are hotels in the area that offer privacy and very comfortable accommodations to out of town patients.