Rhinoplasty Guide for Patients

Reshaping the nose and reading its risks

Rhinoplasty is surgery that reshapes the nose, and each approach below raises its own risk questions.

A risk number only means something with its sample. A rate from a study of a few dozen patients is not the same evidence as a rate from a study of thousands, and a surgeon quoting one should say which. Ask for the sample next to any figure you are given.

Open, closed, preservation and identity-preserving approaches

• Open Rhinoplasty Technique: what makes an approach open and what to ask about its risks.
• Preservation Rhinoplasty Basics: how a preservation approach is described and how to compare it with others.
• Closed Rhinoplasty and Hidden Incisions: what a hidden incision claim does and does not tell you about risk.
• Preserving Ethnic Identity in Rhinoplasty: how to judge a surgeon's plan when you want to keep your own features.

Complication counts from your own surgeon, and the sample behind them

Ask the surgeon how often complications happen in their own patients and how many patients that covers. Ask what in your own health history could raise or lower your risk. Ask what warning signs after surgery mean you should call the same day.

Selection matters too. A plastic surgery society explains who counts as a candidate on its rhinoplasty candidates page. It shows the kind of criteria a surgeon may walk through with you.

Starting from your surgeon's proposed approach

Start with the approach your surgeon has proposed. For a plain list of the risks and safety points a plastic surgery society covers, see its rhinoplasty risks and safety page.

General rhinoplasty information cannot replace medical advice about your own nose.