Nose Form and Function, Page 2
Most recently, he lectured plastic surgeons at the prestigious New York City conference, “Advances in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery: The Cutting Edge V.”. A transcript of Dr. Becker’s lecture on the subject, along with the pictorial slides, is shown below:
Thank you for the privilege of speaking to you today on the subject of Functional Considerations in Rhinoplasty and The Role of Pre-operative Endoscopy in Functional Rhinoplasty.
Amongst physician specialists who take care of nasal breathing problems, nasal endoscopy (examining the nose using a special telescope) is the standard of care in the evaluation of patients with nasal blockage. Unfortunately, a significant number of rhinoplasty surgeons do not routinely perform this evaluation. We will show you today that those doctors may be missing important problems causing nasal obstruction. It is no surprise that in these cases a number of these patients have persistent nasal blockage even after rhinoplasty. We will show you examples of patients who had problems causing nasal blockage that could only be discovered by endoscopic exam or subsequent CT scan. And, we will discuss the treatment of these problems as well.
As we discuss the causes of nasal breathing problems in patients seeking rhinoplasty, my question to the audience today is this:
If a patient has nasal obstruction, should the fact that they are seeking rhinoplasty change the standard of care? In other words, shouldn’t we perform a nasal endoscopy on every patient with nasal obstruction to be sure we find the cause? How do you justify NOT doing an endoscopy on such a patient just because they are having a rhinoplasty as well?