A Lifetime Regret – My Experience with Dr. Ari Hyman

I had a revision rhinoplasty with Dr. Ari Hyman in May 2023, and it’s one of the biggest regrets of my life. I paid $22,000 and was left with a nose that looks deformed, has caused me years of pain, and led to serious emotional distress.

From the start, the result was disappointing. The original asymmetry wasn’t fixed. Dr. Hyman used very large rib grafts that made my nose look bulkier and unnaturally sharp. Just one week after surgery, the tip already looked too pointy—and it got worse with time. It became hard, sharp, and clearly distorted. Since then, I’ve seen several top revision surgeons who all said the grafts were excessive, too rigid, and poorly shaped.

Dr. Hyman also reduced only one nostril—the right one. The scar wasn’t hidden in the natural crease, but placed about 2–3 cm outside of it. The stitching was rough and left stretch marks. My nose bled a lot during recovery. Months later, a stitch even pushed out through the bottom of my nose, and Dr. Hyman had to remove it painfully.

He took rib cartilage for the grafts and said he put the leftover rib back. But I had rib pain for two years. Other surgeons now believe this was because the rib was placed under the muscle—something that’s not typically done and may have been done wrong.

One of the most troubling parts was how little transparency there was. I asked several times for the name and qualifications of the nurse who assisted during surgery, but never got an answer. The IV was placed incorrectly, and my hand hurt for nearly a month. I told Dr. Hyman about this, but nothing came of it.

Whenever I shared concerns, I felt dismissed. At one point, he told me he had created a “unique shape”—which felt completely invalidating after everything I’d been through. When I was almost in tears talking about how much this affected me, I didn’t get a real apology—just a settlement offer of $2,730, later increased to $5,000. That doesn’t even come close to covering the cost of the revision I now need.

The surgery lasted 6 hours under general anesthesia. My nose stayed swollen much longer than normal, felt tight from graft tension, and looked uneven in all lighting. It looked nothing like the Photoshop images he had shown me. When I left a comment on his social media expressing concern, I was blocked shortly after. That might be part of why it’s hard to find honest, negative reviews about him online.

This experience left me socially isolated and crushed my self-esteem for two years. I feel like I lost not just money, but part of my youth, my confidence, and even my rib—to a surgery I now deeply regret.

Please be careful. Get more than one opinion, and don’t trust polished photos alone.

This wasn’t just a bad result—it was a life-changing mistake I’ll never forget.
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