The Journey Through Rhinoplasty... - Charlotte, NC

After 45 years of ridicule and sinus suffering, I am ready to take the plunge into rhinoplasty. During this still-uncertain financial time, I am desperately trying to get out of a dead-end job that is ruining me financially, but have not had any luck, and I feel it may be in part to my appearance.

I have reached out to several doctors here in Charlotte, NC, focusing on those with training also as ENT as well as plastics. I found 3 in the area. I have filled out contact form for all 3. The one in Huntersville doesn't respond. One of them in Charlotte responded, but just said to call and seemed kind of put-out. The 3rd was Carolina Facial Plastics, and the lady there has been in contact with me several times, emailed me the forms to fill out, gave me tons of information, and was generally interested in me, and gladly setup an appointment next week for free consultation. Their website is pretty good with lots of information, Q&A, videos and photos. So far, I get a great feeling from this office, so I am excited about visiting them in person next week.

OK, I had my first consult last week, and have another this week. So far I have learned that most of the procedure is not covered by health insurance, which I expected. I did learn something that I never thought of. For those of you thinking about using CareCredit or something similar to finance the procedure, beware that many doctors do NOT allow the OR facility or the anesthesiologist to bill CareCredit, and want their money up-front. This consult told me that and when I told them to forget it, they came back and said they would pay the fees and charge them to my Carecredit directly, so don't forget to ask!! My consult this week already told me that they WILL let everything go on the account, so yay for that. They said that I would have rhinoplasty and septoplasty as well as temporalis fascia harvest. When I was told about that last part, I freaked a little bit, but then he explained that it is common and that it leaves a teeny tiny little cut that is hardly noticeable and they do not cut any hair in the area behind the ear for this. Its apparently used on the upper part of the nose where the bone begins and the cartilage ends where my skin is very thin, showing a bump there. This should eliminate that. So, I now have more information to take with me to my second opinion to at least compare one doctor to another. I will keep you informed.