Out-of-Town Patients
Dr. Lam performs a large percentage of his rhinoplasty procedures in patients from out of town. It is important to read over this entire website to familiarize yourself with his technique, philosophy, and results. He will also go over a lot of the discussion with you via telephone consultation and in-person consultation when you are in town. If you are available to make a separate trip to see Dr. Lam in advance of your surgery for an in-person consultation, that would be ideal. For some individuals, that is just not possible and Dr. Lam will do most of the consultation work via telephone using submitted photographs. We ask that you send in front, 3/4 oblique (left and right), profile (left and right), basal (bottom of the nose) photographs with a plain, uncluttered background to Dr. Lam’s staff so that Dr. Lam can review these photographs in advance of his consultation with you. If you cannot fly or travel to Dallas for an in-person consultation with Dr. Lam prior to your surgery, you should plan to come at least one day in advance to Dallas so that Dr. Lam can do a formal consultation and physical examination of your nose. You will also spend time with Dr. Lam’s staff signing papers and reviewing your postoperative instructions again.
As soon as you have finished your initial in-person or phone consultation with Dr. Lam and are ready to schedule your surgery, Dr. Lam’s staff will work with you to arrange a mutually convenient surgery date. They will also help explain what you need to know beforehand, take your deposit, and also explain if you need a medical clearance and how to go about doing that, as well as setting up a preoperative phone or in-person visit to explain all the details that you need to know prior to your rhinoplasty procedure. You may also like to visit his page for out-of-town visitors to help you know more about the amenities and other facts about Plano and Dallas that may help you. Please note that we cannot guarantee how accurate this page is in terms of being up to date. It is always better to search google or ask Dr. Lam’s staff more specific questions about hotels, transportation, etc.
You will need a companion with you for the first night following your surgery. If you do not have someone, we will assign an after-care provider for you at an added expense. We would prefer for you to stay for one week so that Dr. Lam may help evaluate you at one week following surgery. However, since Dr. Lam does not use any sutures that require removal and you can remove your splint yourself (by taking a hot shower and loosening the splint and gently pulling upwards never side to side), you may return to your hometown a day or two after surgery if you feel well enough to travel taking photographs of your nose at a week to submit to Dr. Lam for his review. If you have had a chin implant, you may also return home the following day. However, if you have other surgical procedures along with your nose job, you should ask Dr. Lam how long he would prefer for you to stay. Fortunately, in almost every major surgical procedure nowadays, Dr. Lam prefers to use dissolvable sutures for improved healing so in most cases you may return home without needing suture removal. The only major exception to this rule is FUT hair transplant in which he could arrange for a surgeon to help remove these sutures 2 weeks out if you live in a major metropolitan area where Dr. Lam knows a colleague to help him do so. If you are having an FUE hair transplant surgery, it would need to be done a day prior to your rhinoplasty because during the surgery, your face would be down in a cradle and may compromise your rhinoplasty results.
For recommended times for follow up, please see the recovery section, but suffice it to say that there are no strict timeframes of when you need to see Dr. Lam following a rhinoplasty. If you should have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Lam or his staff.
