3 months post op....so happy:)

I have a dorsal hump that I want removed and would also like a bit of tip work done since I know removing just the hump will make my nose appear even longer. I don't live in a big city and we only have 2 plastic surgeons in my town that both have good reputations. However they both seem to specialize in things like breast implants, liposuction, facelifts ect. Not a ton of rhinos. They both said they probably average about 12 to 50 a year. They both have been doing this fo over 20 years and both seemed comfortable doing the procedure. However I keep hearing from doctors on this website that you need someone who does at least a hundred or so a year, so that makes me a little nervous. The first doc I saw looked and me and basically just said you I can do that. Didn't give me a ton of details but seemed to think it would be easy and that rhinoplasty is his favorite procedure to do. Just said he would get rid of the hump, break my nose, and do some tip work and that would be the end of it.

The second one however was way more detailed! He actually examined my nose thoroughly and told me first and foremost I already have a very thin nose and skin so shaving down the bump and then breaking it could give me to narrow of a nose. He was also concerned about my airway being affected. Something about a sunken v deformity could end up happening and affect my breathing. So he believes filing down the hump and using osteomosis along with spreader grafts is the best choice. Also he weigh some tip work. Also mentioned something about the bone coming from my nose towards my lip? Something about cutting that which would cause my upper lip to not be tensed? Which can apparently affect the distance between the nose and lip? I need to ask him about that again. I didn't fully get it. I didn't even realize my upper lip was tense. Also this doctor is a lot older. Probably early 70s but I'm not sure if that matters. Anyway, still deciding who to go with. I'm a little sad my choices are so limited because of where I live but I just can't afford the time and traveling costs that would go into going with an out of town surgeon, and the nearest big city we have is 5 hours away. I could be nervous for nothing and these guys could do a great job. I just don't know how many nose jobs it takes to make a surgeon great at it. From what I'm hearing these guys have done hundreds in their career but definitely not thousands. If you wanna see photos I have some posted on previous questions I've had for other doctors.

So I have met with two plastic surgeons in my town, and so far am not comfortable with either. I have one more in my town to meet with before I start looking into surrounding cities. The guy I'm meeting with next week is a younger guy with not as much experience as the other guys, so we will see. The closest actual facial plastic surgeon I could find is a little over two hours away and is also a board certified ENT. He, however only has three years experience. His reviews have been amazing though and the few before and after pics on his website were great, plus they said they would show me more when I come in. I have a good feeling about this guy:) at this point I'm discovering that experience isn't the most important thing to me. The two guys I met with both had over 25 years experience but I did not get the feeling that they had the bet aesthetic taste and did not understand exactly what I was wanting. Plus the bulk of there practices were boobs and tummy tucks. I would rather have a facial plastic surgeon with less experience who has excellent aestetic taste and gets what I'm wanting. Plus, what I'm wanting is totally realistic! Hump gone, straighten my septum, and refine my overprotected tip! I'm actually surprised that both those surgeons thought that just taking out my hump would be good enough. I felt like I had to convince them I needed refining of my tip, and if you look at my pictures you can clearly see that I do. We will see how things go with these next two surgeons. I do think a facial plastic surgeon will be the way to go. Right now tons of experience means nothing to me. I want excellent aestetic taste, someone who dedicates most of their practice to rhinoplastys, and someone who gets me! I know my surgeon is out there somewhere:)

I'm not very good with updating this thing, but I found a wonderful surgeon and am scheduled for early November. I had met with 4 plastic surgeons total and I knew instantly that he was my guy:) He is younger and has only been in practice 3 years, however, he is double board certified as a Facial Plastic surgeon and an ENT. Most importantly he made me feel so comfortable, and instantly made me feel that we were on the same page, as far as what needs to be done to my nose. I asked him how many rhinos he's done and he said total is about 300-400, which surprised me because he's so young. One thing that separated him from the others, aside being an actual Facial plastic surgeon, was that he said Rhinoplasties were his favorite procedure to do because it is so challenging. I want whoever is working on my nose to have passion for what they are doing:) Anyway, he said the whole procedure would take about 3 hours. Sounds like a long time but he's doing a lot of detailed work one me. Along with taking down my hump, he is going to be adding spreader grafts, straightening my bridge and my tip ( apparently the big challenge is that my bridge and tip are off centered) deprojecting my tip, adding some sort of grafting around my nostrils ( I think it's alar rim grafts, but need to ask him again) very slight tip work, and then he will be cutting the depressor muscle so my tip will not droop when i smile. I'm very excited but now that it's scheduled I'm going through the "Am I doing the right thing phase" only because I'm a mom who is choosing to have surgery which always has some risk, so of course I think of all the "what ifs". But I just know if I don't do this now, i will regret it later. The whole point of doing this is so I don't have to think about my nose anymore. I've always been self conscious about it, and as much as I'd love to be the kind of person who can "just live with it", I could do that, I just don't want to! :) So there ya go :) Any tips or advice about anybodies own personal experience would be great:)