Treatment Provider

John M. Hilinski, MD
Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon
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photo

after photo, to me right nostril looks bigger

Bad ending to my experience

Unfortunately, I need to revise my glowing review, as I have been left with an extremely bad taste in my mouth and no longer enthusiastically recommend this provider.

Since day one there was always long wait times for appointments, but I never focused on it because I was happy overall so I overlooked it. Until now. When I walked into the waiting room for my last follow up appointment the front desk woman was engaged an a personal conversation and failed to acknowledge me ....even though I was in her sight standing in line right in front of her! I waited for about 15 minutes before saying something and she was not nice at all about it, as if I was inconveniencing her. I found this extremely unprofessional and disrespectful of my time. I was so bothered that I ended up leaving and will not be back.

As far as my nose goes, I am no longer in love with my results. Though it is an improvement from my old nose, it is by no means perfect. I had not noticed in person, but I do online videos as part of my job, and looking at myself on camera my nose is very obviously not symmetrical, one nostril is larger than the other. I looked at pictures of myself before the surgery and this was not the case prior. It is not so bad that I will get it fixed, it's just bad enough I'm preoccupied by it.

I wrote to Dr Hilinksi about my customer service incident last week and he could not even be bothered to respond. Now that he has my money and the service is complete there is no reason to care about your clients apparently. So overall, my nose is an improvement, and though I am not unhappy with my results, their lack of customer service makes me unable to recommend them.

MY CASE: I didn't have a bad nose to start off...

MY CASE: I didn't have a bad nose to start off with -the bridge was fine with no hump- but I was always extremely bothered by the tip, it was droopy and bulbous. In person it was not super noticeable, but in photos it really stood out. I decided that I wanted a tip refinement done, which from what I researched is very tricky to do and requires a lot of skill and finesse.

WHY I CHOSE HILINSKI: I did **MAJOR** research before going with HIlinski. I spent hours going through reviews and looking at hundreds (probably thousands) of before and after photos. Since tip refinement is not as common it was really hard to find the right person. What made Hilinski stand out, even though he doesn't have as many reviews as others, were his photos. I noticed that each nose he did was incredibly distinct and tailored to the person - while, by contrast, most of the others I looked at tended to give the exact same plastic-looking nose to every person (seriously!). Hilinski does not do the same nose twice and his photos speak for themselves. Also, his qualifications made me feel more confident especially given that tip refinement requires a lot of finesse and has a high level of difficulty. Since he specializes in & is known for revision surgery (which is also a very high level of difficulty) I knew that I would be in good hands. I thought: if he can fix the world's worst botched nose jobs, he can fix my tip!

MY EXPERIENCE: I was extremely nervous to have this done because, as I mentioned above, I did not look bad before and I thought there was a chance of looking worse afterwards and regretting it. Because of these fears I actually delayed my surgery date for a few months so I would have time to really think it through. I am SO GLAD that I went through with it!!!!! I am absolutely in love with my new nose!!!!! Hilinski is so professional and you can just tell by talking to him that he knows what he's doing. I didn't even give him much instruction, I just trusted him completely.

The day of the surgery all of the staff were incredibly nice and made me feel comfortable. The nurse in particular was an absolute doll (I forgot her name unfortunately). I only felt bad for 1 day post op and was able to get my bandages off and go out in public 5 days later. I will admit while the bandages were on my nose looked funny and I was terrified I made a huge mistake, I was obsessing over it and trying to peek under it. But alas, when he removed the bandages my nose was PERFECT (though quite swollen I could see the shape and size were fantastic). Please learn from my experience and don't judge the result while the bandages are on!

Now it's been a few months and the swelling has gone down 75%. This small change has made such a huge difference in my look and I feel so much better about myself. Not a single person has noticed, though several people have told me that i've been looking good lately. I am obsessed and in love with my new cute nose-- it's perfect and fits my face. If anyone out there is considering a tip refinement with Hilinski please feel free to contact me.

Provider Review

Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon
3720 Fourth Ave., San Diego, California
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