Psychological reasons for resorting to a rhinoplasty

When someone is determined to undergo cosmetic surgery, it is important to consider the motivations behind that decision..

Psychology and psychiatry offer a broader panorama of each specific case that must be taken into account, since the satisfaction of the patient after the intervention will depend on it..

What are the reasons for having a rhinoplasty?

We can establish a distinction between two great motivations that lead people to undergo a surgical intervention on their nose, we speak of aesthetic motivations and functional motivations.

Aesthetic reasons

We live in a world that increasingly gives more importance to the image. Social networks and the need to look as perfect as possible is leading to an increase in the number of cosmetic operations.

Usually someone whose motivations are aesthetic will try to make their nose job as discreet as possible. In this sense, ultrasonic rhinoplasty is an advanced technique that reshapes the nose without inflammation or bruising, shortening the recovery time, which means that many people are not even aware that an intervention has occurred..

Within the aesthetic motivations we can establish some distinctions:

• There is an objective deformity but the person is not psychologically affected. These patients are good candidates for successful nose surgery, which could increase their self-esteem and confidence..

• The deformity is accompanied by psychological distress. In this case, it would be advisable for a psychologist to evaluate the degree of affectation of the patient and if necessary carry out a psychological straightening prior to the intervention. In some cases, the patient may not be fully aware that their problem goes beyond an aesthetic issue and therefore the expected satisfaction after the intervention would not occur. In this case, the patient could start a dangerous vicious cycle of successive interventions that would increase their discomfort in the long term..

• The search for perfection. As in the previous case, people who seek perfection are not good candidates for aesthetic operations because, as we all know, perfection does not exist and is something subjective that obeys their own or even social criteria, which are changing.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Rhinoplasty

We cannot finalize aesthetic motivations without talking about the body dysmorphia, considered as a psychological disorder that produces an alteration of the self-image on some aspect of the body that for other people is practically imperceptible or does not have the greatest importance.

The performance of aesthetic operations in this type of patients, especially rhinoplasties, generate problematic situations since they feel that the defect has not just been corrected. Detecting in time if the patient in front of us suffers from this disorder will be of utmost importance to guarantee satisfaction after the intervention and avoid other types of social or even economic alterations.

Functional reasons

The nose is an organ that has different functions, the most important of which are being able to smell and breathe correctly. If for some reason there is a functional alteration that prevents performing these actions correctly, it will be necessary to consider the need to undergo a surgical intervention.

If there is any psychological alteration, it will usually be a consequence of not being able to enjoy full functionality of the nose. These patients are great candidates to experience total satisfaction after the intervention.

There are also some cases in which the functional problem is accompanied by an objective aesthetic alteration. Here there is usually a high degree of suffering on the part of the patient that will need to be evaluated prior to the intervention, just as when we were talking about exclusively aesthetic motivations. However, whenever there is a functional alteration, the need for surgery should not be questioned..

In summary

Any surgical intervention represents a major change in life and is therefore a potentially stressful situation. Before making the decision to carry out any type of intervention (especially if it is due to aesthetic motivations) it is important to enjoy an adequate and balanced state of mental health that guarantees absolute satisfaction according to the objectives pursued with the operation.