Where to Start When Looking For a Rhinoplasty Surgeon

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Dr. Michael Epstein: Hi. I'm Dr. Michael Epstein and I'm going to answer a question that was post to me on RealSelf. This particular reads as follows, "Where do you even begin for rhinoplasty? How many appointments should I make before choosing a doctor and how do I go about finding the appropriate or picking the appropriate surgery for rhinoplasty surgery?" Well, here's some of the suggestions that I would have. One of the best places to start is friends and family, and if you know anybody that had rhinoplasty surgery and they've had a good experience, they've had an outcome that they like and you like, that's a great person to ask to start the process going. The other individual that would be a good resource for finding a plastic surgeon that does rhinoplasty surgery might be your primary care physician because they often are in tuned with the local plastic surgeons in the area. Once you've obtained several names I would then go to the internet and search their websites, check them out, see what they have to say or see what people have to say about them by looking at different reviews. Look at their before and after galleries on their own websites, see what the testimonials look like on the individual surgeon's websites and once you've sort of narrowed down the focus from there then you also want to make sure that you're checking out their credentials like making sure that they are board certified plastic surgeons for starters, and making sure that they are members of both the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. By being a member of the latter, that typically means that the plastic surgeon's practice is primarily focused on elective cosmetic surgery and they probably do more rhinoplasties than somebody that's not in the society.

Then you start to make your appointments and when you're visiting the plastic surgeon you want to hear what they have to say, see how they interact. Make sure that what they are telling you is consistent with some of the other plastic surgeons but at the same time make sure that it make sense to you. Ask them specifically, you know, how many of these rhinoplasties they do or if it's for any particular procedure. You want to make sure that that particular surgeon has plenty of experience in that surgery that you're looking to have done. Once that's all done and you put it all together then it's just about trusting your gut and going with, you know, what you think is going to be the appropriate doctor. Good luck. I hope this answer gives you some insight in defining plastic surgeon for rhinoplasty surgery. Thank you for asking. Bye.