I went for a consultation for a second revision rhinoplasty. There was no one waiting, and the clinic facilities were very clean and nice. As expected, they recommended autologous costal cartilage as the material, but they said that if I didn’t want to make the height higher, I could also use septal cartilage or ear cartilage, and that it was up to the patient to choose. Since every other clinic had recommended autologous costal cartilage, it did sound new to me, but I was already leaning toward autologous costal cartilage, so the latter option (septal cartilage/ear cartilage) didn’t really register with me.. But what I wondered about was that I know autologous costal cartilage surgery takes over 4 hours, yet they said they proceed with sedation anesthesia. Since I’d have to keep breathing on my own, wouldn’t that be a bit dangerous? That’s what I thought.. I’m not saying general anesthesia is necessarily better, but for a 4-5 hour surgery, if it’s done under sedation anesthesia, the amount of anesthetic would naturally increase, and it seemed risky ㅠ Also, they said the scar from harvesting autologous costal cartilage would be about 3 cm, so I’m hesitant because the scar seems like it would be bigger than I expected. The cost was the highest among my consultations, and they said they would negotiate the price if I let them take review photos, but it didn’t really resonate with me, so I put it on hold.
Additional notes) 1. I’m not in a state of contracture or inflammation, so improving the shape is more urgent than function, but there wasn’t enough explanation about how the shape would differ depending on the material. 2. They brought up nasal bridge osteotomy and nostril reduction, which other clinics hadn’t mentioned.. so I was kind of like, huh? 3. It was disappointing that they only explained the pros and cons of autologous costal cartilage versus septal/ear cartilage as simply having a difference in height ㅠ I wish they had explained in detail what kind of difference there would be in the shape, about how many millimeters of height difference there would be, etc.