Rhinoplasty (Asian female)

I am an Asian female in my late twenties and Dr. Lin performed a rhinoplasty for me in late 2017. I felt self-conscious about the size and width of my nose my entire life and decided to undergo surgery to change something that always bothered me. My closed (i.e. no external incisions) rhinoplasty involved an alar base reduction and dorsal hump removal. In other words, the width of my nose was reduced at the base and a bump was removed from my nasal bridge.

After researching online, I chose Dr. Lin because he is board certified in plastic surgery and otolaryngology and he teaches aesthetic surgery at Harvard Medical School. Some patients appear to suffer from breathing problems after rhinoplasty, so I considered Dr. Lin's additional expertise in otolaryngology to be a reassurance.

During my two consultations with Dr. Lin, we discussed what I did not like about my nose, what I hoped to achieve, and his basic impressions of what was easily achievable and what was not. I told Dr. Lin that my primary concerns were my nose being wider and flatter than I liked and that I was interested in an alar base reduction based on my own research. We also went over some additional options to achieve my desire for a nose with greater overall definition, including inserting a silicone or rib cartilage implant to increase projection, removing cartilage from the nose to make it smaller, and narrowing the upper half of the nose, which would require breaking some bones. We also discussed the pros and cons of open vs. closed rhinoplasties for an alar base reduction in particular. While an open rhinoplasty would reduce both nasal/nostril flare and width, the external incisions could cause extensive scarring. On the other hand, a closed rhinoplasty would reduce width but not flare, but have the advantage of hidden incisions.

I opted for a simple closed rhinoplasty with a dorsal hump removal because a smaller, “more compact” nose was mostly what I wanted. The process involved removing skin from inside the nose as well as the nasal "sill" and effectively "pinching" the nose together from the inside. While I would have liked to reduce nasal flare as well, I decided against open rhinoplasty because of concerns with scarring.

Dr. Lin is very respectful of his patients’ wishes and will not offer his opinions until after you make yours known, so I think it’s best for his patients to have very specific objectives in mind. I truly appreciated Dr. Lin’s patience during the entire process. I never felt rushed and was actually a little embarrassed after I realized how much time we spent talking at my first consultation.

My surgery lasted two hours and I went home shortly after waking from general anesthesia. I was uncomfortable for just a day or two, not so much from pain but having to breathe through my mouth and sleep partially upright to allow for draining. I was back at work in 8 days and resumed my usual cardio workouts in a little over a month.

Overall, I’m very happy with the result and highly recommend Dr. Lin, who was patient, warm, and easy to communicate with. Admittedly, I ended up with something less dramatic than I wanted at the beginning, but learned through the process that there are some trade offs/limitations with Asian rhinoplasty in particular, especially if you're resistant to some of the more invasive measures. It seems challenging to achieve a certain level of definition because of the texture and thickness of Asian skin. Still, I’m very happy with the results and think my smaller nose is more proportional with the rest of my face.