Rhinoplasty (Nose Job) San Diego

5 things to know about Rhinoplasty

1. Rhinoplasty is a 1 ½ to 3-hour surgery with results that last a lifetime

Rhinoplasty is performed as an outpatient procedure, meaning that no overnight hospital stay is required. The surgery itself takes as little as one and a half to three hours, though it is by no means a simple surgery. Although revision rhinoplasties are always an option, the results of an initial rhinoplasty surgery do otherwise last a lifetime, though the nose will continue to be impacted in age-related changes of the body.

2. Rhinoplasty is the most exacting and meticulous cosmetic surgery

You should only ever see a board-certified plastic surgeon with considerable experience in your procedure of interest, but if ever there was one procedure to really do your due diligence on, it is rhinoplasty. Because your surgeon will be working with multiple types of bone, tissue, and cartilage of varying thicknesses within just a few square inches of space—and given the extreme prominence of the nose—it is widely considered the most complex plastic surgery.

3. Rhinoplasty can have both cosmetic and medical benefits

Rhinoplasty is often considered a purely cosmetic surgery, but it actually provides a number of possible medical and functional benefits where these are needed, including such things as correcting a deviated septum, or making natural breathing easier.

4. Rhinoplasty is the 4th most popular plastic surgery

Rhinoplasty is performed more often than many people realize. 24 percent of rhinoplasties are done for men and 76 percent are done for women. The ages at which the procedure is most often done are between ages 20 and 29.

5. Rhinoplasty varies from person to person and among ethnicities

No two rhinoplasty surgeries are ever the same. A tailored surgical made is made exclusively for the patient in front of us, after extensive medical reviews, a careful inspection and deep understanding of the nasal structure, and computer imaging. For patients with distinct ethnic traits, the procedure is done so as to preserve those traits (as is usually desired), while at the same time, correcting those things about the nose that are disliked by the patient.

Transcript of the discussion

Randy: So you told me you love rhinoplasty?

Dr. Chasan: I do love rhinoplasties. You know, for me, rhinoplasty is the one procedure that separates the men from the boys in plastic surgery. It’s the one procedure that shows your artistic ability. And so in rhinoplasty takes the longest, it’s the longest learning curve. It’s the most detail-oriented. It’s the most artistic surgery we do. And so if you’re at the top of your game and you’re proud of what you do. I do a lot of rhinoplasties and I just love it because it’s in the center of their face.

And a rhinoplasty can change someone’s life. You know, most people are concerned that it’ll change the way they look and it couldn’t be further from the truth. It only enhances their look. In other words, if somebody has a hump on their nose or a wide nose, that takes away from the beauty of their face. If you can create a beautiful nose that just blends in with their face, that makes their whole face look more attractive. So you can imagine from a surgeon’s perspective if you’re looking at someone that you did their nose and you hit a homerun on them, and their nose looks perfect and they’re happy and you’re happy, that’s really fun.

Randy: And what is perfection in your world? One that is not noticeable? One that mimics natural, you know, human nature noses?

Dr. Chasan: Yeah. Well, when you look at noses… What I, my philosophy towards noses, I remove the deformities or the problems with someone’s nose. So they’re left with a nose that’s their nose that fits their face, but just doesn’t have the hump and doesn’t have the wideness or the bulbous tip or move to the side or something. So if I can remove those things as if you could just Photoshop it, that’s what I’m looking to do with someone’s nose. So ultimately if you look at all my noses, you go online and see my noses, they all are gonna look different. But the main thing is they should look like they fit that person’s face. They should look like the nose that they should have been born with.

Randy: What should you ask of a surgeon that’s going to do this? You compared it I think in our green room to golf.

Dr. Chasan: Yes.

Randy: Elaborate on that.

Dr. Chasan: Well, the reason I said is golf takes so long to learn but once you’re good at it, you know, first, you have to keep practicing.

Randy: You have to keep doing it.

Dr. Chasan: Yeah, but you want to ask do they do a lot of noses? You want to know how many noses they have. You want to look at their noses and look at their photo gallery. Because if they’re going to show you a photo gallery, they’re showing you some of their best results. And if you’re not…if their art isn’t comparable to your art, when you look at their nose and you say, “God, I don’t really like that nose. I wouldn’t be happy with that.” Then it’s the wrong surgeon for you. So you want someone who is experienced at doing a lot of noses, and you want to like their noses that you see.

Randy: You know, we’ve had on a lot of plastic surgeons on this show over the years. And I think the public doesn’t realize how many surgeons don’t like doing noses. They don’t like doing rhinoplasty.

Dr. Chasan: Right.

Randy: That it’s for them almost like a risky procedure that they send out. Is it because it is so technically demanding or so artistic?

Dr. Chasan: It takes a lot of skill sets to be good at rhinoplasty. And if you never develop those skill sets, and you don’t get good at rhinoplasties you get an unhappy patient. And so you really want to go to someone who’s experienced and likes doing them.

Randy: So if you don’t like your nose, come in for a consult?

Dr. Chasan: Perfect.

Randy: Could you give them a pretty good idea of what their nose is going to look like?

Dr. Chasan: I tend to show them…I don’t like to do the photo-imaging. But I’ll show them people have similar noses that have been done, so they get the best idea that way.