Underwhelmed with Tipplasty, Horrible Chin Implant Experience - Charlotte, NC

I had a very very bulbous, dropping nose. The bridge had (and still has) a slight bump, but nothing that needed work. I was living in South Carolina at the time of the surgery and made several consultation appointments, including one in North Carolina and an online consultation for a doctor in New York. The price I was quoted for the doctor in New York was ridiculously expensive, and I got the best "vibe" from the doctor in North Carolina. I also liked his aesthetic. He also suggested a chin implant which I never considered but I listened to his explanation of why (since my nose was big and chin was little, nose will look smaller with a bigger chin) and at the time it made sense and I trusted his professional opinion. I had a good feeling at the appointment and the price was right so eventually after my other consults I chose Dr. Freeman.

Between the time that I paid/booked the appointment and my surgery date (which was a long gap of time) I started to get nervous about the fact that he didn't seem to take any notes or do a digital manipulation for me. So when I went back for another appointment a week before surgery I asked if he could do a digital image for me because I wasn't sure exactly what his vision for my nose and if it even was the same vision I had. He started the computer program, pulled up a photo of me and stopped after 30 seconds and said "its really pointless for me to do this" and explained verbally that he would lift the droop, give me one central point (I had a boxy fat nose) and refine the width. Still not knowing what that meant, I showed him some photos of some women that I thought had a more refined version of my nose. Their noses still looked "eastern european" ethnic, a bit rounded. I asked if I could realistically expect an outcome like this. He said, without a doubt, yes. I had already paid for my surgery, and looking at his photos it seemed as if he never made a nose look worse than it already was, so I just decided to go ahead with it.

The surgery took less than an hour total for my chin implant and nose. It went fine and the nurse was very kind. Afterwards I was having way more pain than expected and the nurse called in to change my prescription for pain killers which did end up helping. The next day I drove back to South Carolina with my sister. A week later, he took the tape off my nose. It looked horrible. He didn't try to explain that this was swelling or explain how it would look when the swelling went down. He talked to me in a manner that made it seem like I was ungrateful and said "I've never seen a woman upset that she has a prettier nose." The swelling and appearance of my nose the first few weeks was so bad I couldn't leave the house. I was starting to feel a bit better and hopeful at the one month point. My nose was starting to look a bit better. At the one month appointment he said it was still extremely swollen and the appearance would change dramatically.

As for my chin implant... I could hardly notice a difference except that I could see the outline of the implant and that the muscles I use to smile wide were blocked. He acted like I was crazy when I mentioned this. During this and other appointment he said several sexist comments such as "all of you women just stare in the mirror all day". Also, we made small talk about my job, (I have a physically intense job that surprises most people as I am a very petite girl) and he had a degrading tone about that too, saying something like "that's right, you can do all of the things that the big boys can do too." I was just really appalled at his attitude and bedside manner which wasn't the vibe I got from him before the surgery was booked and paid for.

At the one month appointment he only printed out one view for me before/after pictures, the 3/4 view. I will be honest, the 3/4 view is a lot improved. In general, I can say that my nose is improved. But my front on view still looks like a "before picture." The tip is still wide and droops. This is why he wouldn't give me the other before/after views. He never explained or told me the procedure he performed on my nose until i asked 9 months later. At this point the nose still looked the same as the 2 or 3 month point, which was not very different from the 1 month point. Basically all of the wideness that he said was swelling and that I hoped would subside never did.

At 9 months, I e-mailed him some photos asking his opinion about a revision, just to see what he would say. He said I looked "cute as a button" and that there was nothing wrong with my nose. At this point I also wanted to know exactly the procedure he performed. I learned that it was a closed rhinoplasty with sutures to the dome and a strut with an intact tip procedure. So, no tissue was cut at the tip of my nose and it still looks almost the same as it did, it just bulges out less further up. I don't know how he thought I would be happy with the same tip shape as I expressed that this was the part of my nose that I hated the most. On one side of my columnella there is a stitch that is poking almost the whole way through my skin. Every few weeks it gets irritated and forms what looks like a pimple. I thought it was an ingrown hair for a long time and finally got tweezers to pull it out. When I got the tweezers... I could feel that it was plastic, not a hair, so obviously I didn't pull on it and I try to leave the area alone but it still gets irritated from time to time.

As for my chin, the procedure was a joke. It made no difference in my profile view. Only when I was smiling did it jut out and create a flat "ledge" where the outline of the implant was. Dr. Freeman said he never had to take out a chin implant in 20 years. Maybe this is true, because I had to go to another plastic surgeon to remove it. It was a very thin, small implant but very long, and the other surgeon told me that it was placed too high. That is money wasted to have it in, have it taken out, and now I have permanent dimpling of the tissue in my chin.

My overall impression of Dr. Freeman is that he is lazy and does the minimum he can get away with. Honestly, my nose is better than it was before. But I have showed my pictures and spoken to a number of other surgeons who agree that it is still way too wide for my face and can be further improved. It could be worse because I don't have breathing problems or deformities, but I really expected a better result seeing that I paid a lot of money for a cosmetic surgery. I plan on having a revision at some point. This time I will ask a lot more questions and be a lot less trusting.

I wouldn't recommend Dr. Freeman. I think there are a lot of surgeons out there who could do just as well, or better, and have a better bedside manner. I am a 25 year old and he often talked to me as if I were a child. Aside from his nurse, the rest of his staff was rude. When I arrived at my appointments after a 3 hour drive in the heat I was greeted by an extremely rude front desk woman. At one point they even tried to change the date of my surgery, that I had booked 7 months in advance and had planned all of my time-off from work around, in addition to being an out-of-state patient. I will not be going back there for my revision.