Boosted self confidence, went smoothly!
I've wanted rhinoplasty since 11 years old. My big Jewish nose haunted me and distracted from my other flattering features. Seeing so much bad plastic surgery, I made it a mission to find the best surgeon FOR ME. Price and distance meant nothing to me, because you want this done right, the first time. If you want honest and extremely helpful advice in getting a rhinoplasty (or any plastic surgery), read this whole post.
First off, you need the right surgeon for YOU. Every surgeon has strengths. Just because they did a great job on your friend doesn't mean they'll do a great job on you. Some doctors are amazing at making thick noses look thinner. Some are good at reducing bumps, or shortening columellas. Look at YOUR nose and see what needs to be done with it. Find a doctor that has A LOT of UNTOUCHED and RECENT pictures of their work. Look through and find which "types" of noses have CONSISTENT results. Make sure their strengths are in the areas that YOU need. If you are Asian and need a bigger nose, a doctor that specializes in reducing African American noses might not be the best for you. Get it? I felt Dr. Grigoryants had a special strength in reducing humps in noses. This is what I needed, so he caught my interest.
Get a few opinions. One doctor might feel you need this, another doctor might feel you need that. See a few doctors that interest you and get opinions on what you need done, what will look best, how to going about getting good results and if your expectations are realistic. Get a few opinions and use your own judgement.
DO YOUR RESEARCH. Our faces are not made out of clay. Oh, I want this bigger, that smaller, this lifted, that to the left…. how will they do that, with freaking magic?? Watch rhinoplasty videos, read articles, look at diagrams. I am far from a doctor or a science person, but you really have to know WTF is going to be going on while your asleep. There are several ways to do procedures, and every doctor has their opinion on what is best. But how will you know whats going to happen unless yo research it, then ask? For example, ever doctor told me I needed an open rhinoplasty. I didn't care about a little scar, so I figured thats what I needed. Dr. Grigoryants actually did my surgery CLOSED with his own innovative techniques, which I didn't think was possible. I have no scarring, and I had little swelling bruising and downtime. But do you know how they do that, a closed rhinoplasty? He cut open my upper lip! take your tongue and run it across your upper teeth. Feel your gums and that strip of skin in the middle. Yup, that was completely cut open to get to my nose. I'm not saying that was bad, I'm saying make sure you ask what the hell they are exactly doing because a doctor won't go out of his way to tell you EVERY little detail.
Price and distance don't matter in the long run. If you get a bad surgery, you will dish out any amount of money to fix it. SO don't be a cheap ass, travel and speak with the best doctors you can find. I did my research for years, and traveled the whole freaking country. I live in PA; I met with Dr. Epstein (Miami, FL) Dr (Rizk) Dr Lefkovitz (NY) Dr Tarranow (NY) Dr. Vitolo (NJ) Dr Parfitt (WI) Dr Mayer (LA, CA) Dr Toriumi (Chicago, IL), OMG there are more but I can't even remember all the names. I traveled a lot. Some consultations were free, some were $250. I got quotes from $6,000-$21,000!!! Some of the doctors were rude and worthless and others seemed wonderful, but Dr. Grigoryants was the best. This was an expensive process but totally worth it, I found a kick ass Dr in California. Thats priceless.
Don't be afraid to be a pain in the ass. I asked SO many questions, sent SO many pictures and e-mails to Drs and their consultants all the time. I know that Drs are busy and their time is often not for free. However if they can't follow up with you and are too busy to personally answer your important questions and address your concerns, how will they act if there is a problem after the surgery? Will they really give a F if you have problems once they take your money?? Remember you sign your life away in contracts and cant sue whether they screw you up or kill you. Get someone that cares!!! Dr. G answered all my questions promptly through email.
Make sure your goals are realistic. Plastic surgery is for improvement, not perfection. You will never be perfect, get over it. After consulting with so many doctors, I knew that I would most likely need a "touch up" on my nose to straighten it, which I do. Straightening the nose in the hardest thing to do in a rhinoplasty. But wouldn't you rather have a doctor perfect your nose in two series, rather then try to do too much at once and mess it up? A good doctor will underdo, not overdo. It is better to do too little, because once you do too much you'll look like Michael Jackson. Though my nose is not perfectly straight, its 90% better. I hope my touch up in a few months will fix this.
Now for my personal experience, I was scared poopless of this surgery. Dr. Grigoryants is a very busy man. Honestly, it seemed like his patients were just on an assembly line, he was doing 3 surgeries a day half the week! This is OK, because remember whether a doctor sees your face everyday or only one time, they are going to do the surgery the same. No Dr goes home and studies pictures of your face every night for a week. They will open you up and see whats going on inside and decide from there. So they are not necessarily interested in explaining every little detail of what they are doing and what to expect. That way, as I stated above, it is very important to do your own research and ask your own questions.
I had an amazing feeling about Dr. Grigoryants. I sent him pictures, and after a few brief e-mails I scheduled an appointment to meet him. I live in PA and he is in CA, so I scheduled (a cancel-able) surgery for the next day, if I decided I liked him and I wanted to go through with it. I flew out and asked all the right questions. I previously had an unsuccessful septoplasty, and he needs to make sure there was enough septum left to do the rhinoplasty, and another septoplasty. I also had a non surgical nose job a year earlier by Dr. Rivkin in Beverly Hills the year before (I had great results and I recommend to people that need small changes) and I need to make sure there was no injectable left in me. I was good to go!!
Dr. Grigoryants really knew what he was talking about and what he was doing. His staff was not so friendly, and honestly if I hadn't done so much research I don't think I would have picked him. He is a great surgeon, but he's not going to hold your hand through the surgery.
Against his wishes, I had some lip done with my nose. the results of that were less than stellar. I am uneven, sensitive and lumpy. I will see if he can fix that during my touch up.
Somehow, my nose job was absolutely painless. It was uncomfortable, having to sleep sitting up and only being able to breathe through my mouth. But it wasn't painful! I couldn't believe it. The lip in my lower back was extremely painful and if it wasn't for that, I would have been moving around fine. I needed minimal help the first few days, I threw up the second day, I think because of all the Vicoden tearing up my stomach. But every day I took walks outside and trips in the car and I was eating drinking and talking fine. The fifth day he took my cast off and WOW what a difference!!! I had almost NO bruising and minimal swelling. That day I went out and walked around Hollywood square. I felt fine!!!
I saw the results instantly, and let me give you an example. I had my surgery December 10th. EXACTLY two weeks later, it was Christmas. I went to Christmas dinner at my grandmothers house with half my extended family. NO ONE could tell I had a nose job. Every one was like WOW you look sooo pretty, but no one could put heir finger on it. Looking at pictures side by side you could see I had a nose job. But the result were so wonderful and natural no one knew! and this was only TWO WEEKS after surgery!!! Three weeks after was New Years. I went out and drank and had fun… My nose got bumped, an though extremely painful, thank god no damage. Be careful not to put your head down or get it bumped. My nose was extremely sensitive for 3 months.
I got an infection about a month after surgery. There was an irritation from a suture (he uses disintegrating stitches and one got stuck). The infection was SO freaking painful and looked horrible. I don't think this was the doctors fault nor preventable. I think I was just unlucky. If I was local he would have seen me right away. But I live across the country. He called me from his personal cell phone and had me send pictures of the infection. He called the closest pharmacy to me and prescribed me two different antibiotics and followed up with me. The infection was very painful and lasted two weeks. It was so noticeable I couldn't go out, but the doctor handled it very well.
I am now 10 months post op. My result are amazing, I feel like a new person, more beautiful, so much more confidence. From the front, my nose is still not 100% straight. I am hoping that the doctor can fix this in my touch up. But it looks so much better and I am very happy, and pretty! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I CAN WEAR MY HAIR UP!!! :-)
