Dr. Liotta is an Artist

anyone who knows me knows i've been obsessed with one day getting rhinoplasty. since i was a young teen, i would edit my nose, dreaming of what could be. i felt my nose was too projected and too masculine for my face. when i looked in the mirror, i didn't see me the way i mentally envisioned myself. my nose was a huge insecurity of mine and it consumed me. anything i did, laughing, talking, smiling, eating, i covered my face or looked away entirely. i covered my face a lot and would try to only let people look at me from my "selfie angle." 99% of the time, i refused to let anyone take candid photos of me. i immediately hid my nose with my hand if i saw someone take their phone out to take photos. as for taking selfies, i knew of one angle my nose looked decent from and it was the only angle i ever used. i can't count how many times i cried after seeing photos/videos of myself, because i hated my nose so much and i felt like my face wasn't mine. my old nose threw everything off. i consulted with a few surgeons before i met dr. liotta. i'm going to spend a little bit of time on my consult experiences, as i think it is VITAL to trust your gut: the first surgeon i met left me with a sour taste in my mouth and a bad gut feeling, despite decent reviews. he wanted to change my nose the way HE wanted to, and insisted i didn't have over-projection (he said he was 100% not going to do anything to the tip of my nose at all, only the bridge). he was resistant to my wishes and made me feel stupid about my perception of my face. he also tried to pressure me into doing unrelated procedures that i was not consulting for, one of which was fat grafting to my face. i'm only 29 years old, i take really good care of my skin, i don't go in the sun, i wear high SPF, i rarely drink, i've never smoked... but he insisted i was "very hollow" and "fat grafting will make you look WAY younger." despite my initial gut feeling, i left his office wondering if he was right. i battled back and forth with his words. was i wrong about my own nose? do i really look super old? i edited my nose the way he wanted, trying to have an open mind, and the outcome looked terrible to me. after going back and forth in my own head, i determined he was a snake of a surgeon who feeds off of insecurity and knows how to invent problems to talk patients into unnecessary procedures. the next couple of consults i had were thankfully positive experiences. they confirmed i have over-projection and that if the first surgeon i spoke to did surgery his way, i would've been left with a cartoonishly long nose that would've needed revision. despite the positive experience with these consults, i didn't quite click with them, but i was considering them as possibilities. none of these surgeons suggested extra procedures. like i said, they were talented and sweet people, but that connection wasn't there. then i met dr. liotta. upon meeting her, i immediately felt at ease and i had a really good feeling about her. she spotted the flaws i wanted changed and she was honest about expectations. she validated every concern i had with optimism and honesty (my concerns being over-projection, drooping tip, bridge size, crooked front view, nostril size, overall large appearance of nose in relation to my other features). she didn't at all push any extra changes- in fact, when i brought up alarplasty, she said she would only change my nostrils if necessary. what i loved about her is she doesn't give every patient a one size fits all cookie cutter nose. every nose is personalized and extremely fitting, as if they were born with it. she's highly skilled with revision and deprojection, two concepts i heard are extremely difficult to perform. her male rhinoplasty results are also very impressive, further proving her ability to sculpt the perfect nose for anyone (too often do i see overly feminine, tiny nosed male rhino results). as a person, i adored her! she's very sweet and personable. she took her time with me and i didn't at all feel rushed. like myself, she's a detail oriented person. she met with me for a pre-op appointment and we went through the nitty gritty of what i wanted, expectations, etc. i showed her a million photos of self-edits and photos of girls who had noses i loved. i wanted to love my nose from every angle, a challenging request for sure!! again, didn't at all feel rushed and i more than likely talked her ear off every time i saw her lol. i loved her energy, and her team is amazing. they're all beautiful and extremely sweet people, inside and out. they took care of me every step of the way, from the moment i nervously arrived for my initial consult to hand feeding me after surgery to texting me to make sure i was doing okay the first week of recovery. on instagram, someone asked her what she would be if she wasn't a surgeon. she said she would be an artist, a sculptor. a sculptor she already is!! she took a nose i hated and meticulously sculpted it into a nose i am head over heels for. i'm truly obsessed with it in the best way possible, from every angle. all of my insecurity mentioned above, i am free from it. decades of feeling imprisoned by my nose, i don't think about any of it anymore. even this early into recovery, taking selfies has been effortless and FUN. doing my makeup is so much more fun too, because my nose has brought so much harmony to my face as a whole. my main concern with rhinoplasty was post-op dysmorphia or flat out regretting it. i'm very hard on myself and i worried that even with a better nose, i would hate myself still or find that i missed my old nose. thankfully, i was very lucky and recovery has been mentally and physically easy. i had minimal bruising/swelling and virtually no pain (aside from incision pain the first few days). my nose is puffy but i'm in love with it. there isn't a single ounce of regret or remorse in me. i don't miss my old nose at ALL. now, we wait and pray my nose heals as intended over the next 12 months! thank you dr. liotta and team! words can't explain what you all have done for me.