My office life sometimes feels like an episode of "Nip/Tuck"-the characters that walk in, the emotional problems people carry affiliated with their physical attributes, the motives behind the desire to look better..-half of what I do is psychology, another good chunk is giving people attention, love, and care (and the rest little chunk, of course, skills and experience).
And so my mission and purpose constantly evolve in accordance with the needs of my patients. Today I was asked to re-build Arabic nose, the ethnicity of which was completely taken away by a surgeon in Saudi Arabia.
I'm the last one to judge (try to live according to the Laws of Life). Who knows whether the patient failed to express her wishes to the surgeon or the surgeon had his own ideas of beauty?
Objectively (and that's according to another Law, relating to proportions of the face and nose) the dorsum was too asymmetrical and thin, which makes the tip look bulbous. Intuitively I'd think taking out the round curve of the Arabic nose and lifting the droopy tip is what every girl would want, but my patient was so disturbed by losing her Identity after surgery-she has requested the bump, the curve, and "the droop" back. So I did it. My patient still looks like she's got a more refined nose that before the surgery, but now she says she feels more like herself.
It's a fair share of post-surgical noses I treat in the office, most of the time correcting the asymmetry or too thinned out dorsum and tip, but rarely one would ask to get the original nose back.
Every week I get asked to make Jewish and Iranian noses thinner, straight and lifted; Asian noses more European, Eastern European "wavy" noses more straight, Spanish crooked noses straightened, and Indian nose tips lifted.
I like giving people what they want, it's a very satisfying feeling, but I always spend "quality time" explaining how and why to preserve identity and ethnicity. Improving, but not destroying; enhancing but not overdoing it-I'm the most satisfied when I can keep "the personality", both of the nose and of the patient.
And so my mission and purpose constantly evolve in accordance with the needs of my patients. Today I was asked to re-build Arabic nose, the ethnicity of which was completely taken away by a surgeon in Saudi Arabia.
I'm the last one to judge (try to live according to the Laws of Life). Who knows whether the patient failed to express her wishes to the surgeon or the surgeon had his own ideas of beauty?
Objectively (and that's according to another Law, relating to proportions of the face and nose) the dorsum was too asymmetrical and thin, which makes the tip look bulbous. Intuitively I'd think taking out the round curve of the Arabic nose and lifting the droopy tip is what every girl would want, but my patient was so disturbed by losing her Identity after surgery-she has requested the bump, the curve, and "the droop" back. So I did it. My patient still looks like she's got a more refined nose that before the surgery, but now she says she feels more like herself.
It's a fair share of post-surgical noses I treat in the office, most of the time correcting the asymmetry or too thinned out dorsum and tip, but rarely one would ask to get the original nose back.
Every week I get asked to make Jewish and Iranian noses thinner, straight and lifted; Asian noses more European, Eastern European "wavy" noses more straight, Spanish crooked noses straightened, and Indian nose tips lifted.
I like giving people what they want, it's a very satisfying feeling, but I always spend "quality time" explaining how and why to preserve identity and ethnicity. Improving, but not destroying; enhancing but not overdoing it-I'm the most satisfied when I can keep "the personality", both of the nose and of the patient.
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