Consultation & 3D Imaging

The consultation with Dr. Lam is the beginning of your journey with him and is an important first step in the process. During this time, Dr. Lam will begin by hearing what bothers you about your nose, why it bothers you, and how long you have been thinking about this procedure. He believes that understanding why you want the procedure along with what your expectations are should be the cornerstone to the conversation. After he has thoroughly explored your desires, concerns, and ideas surrounding nose surgery, he will examine the outside of your nose both visually and also with his finger, as the thickness of the skin and cartilages underneath are important in his decision-making process. He will evaluate the inside of your nose using a headlight and speculum to look for deviations and other abnormalities that may need correction or that may preclude a successful nose job. This thorough physical examination is founded on him being both a board-certified facial plastic surgeon specializing in rhinoplasty as well as a board-certified ENT surgeon who is focused on nasal functioning.

3D imaging is then the final part of the consultation process in which Dr. Lam uses a sophisticated imager as a point of communication and discussion to ensure that your goals and his are in alignment. The imager is not intended to promise the delivery of a specific result but only as a point of communication. He may make decisions to make slight alterations during surgery based on how the procedure is going that may dictate subtle changes. In addition, healing of rhinoplasty may not give the exact result that an imager provides. Even though the imager is three dimensional in the sense that you can rotate the head and see the nose from multiple angles, in essence it is still a flat 2D imaging device (i.e., the image is still a two-dimensional image on a computer screen) and so in order to appreciate the frontal view better which shows skin tones on skin tones, he may rotate the image back and forth adjacent to the original non-morphed image so that you can better appreciate the changes. In addition, for augmentation rhinoplasty, more commonly used in Asian and African noses, the imager is not as dramatic in its presentation of results, and that subtlety is important to grasp. The most powerful tool for the imager is demonstrated in its ability to reduce larger nasal humps shown from a profile view. In these cases, the results are more obvious since the profile view stands in contrast against a black background. Nevertheless, Dr. Lam will try to perform imaging for you during the consultation to better explain his goals and to establish a mutual plan.