Question: I am from Lebanon and would like to have rhinoplasty. I would like my nose to fit into the normal range (size and shape) of people with my ethnicity. Should I bring in pictures of what I want to look like?
Answer: It is often useful to bring in photographs that exemplify the aesthetic outcome desired from a procedure. This gives the plastic surgeon a sense of what the patient’s goals are and whether or not they can be accomplished with the proposed procedure. It is important to understand that photographs of another individual (or even the same individual at a younger age) can only serve as an approximation of what the actual surgical outcome will be. The same principle is true for computer photo-editing programs, although these can be another useful tool as well.