How old do I have to be to get a rhinoplasty?

The most critical step is that a patient must be emotionally mature enough to know for sure that they want to change their nose and the way in which they want it to change.  For instance, a teenager with a stereotypical Persian or Jewish nose may be torn between simply removing a bump on their nose or taking it a step further and making their nose very small and characteristic of another race.  A teenager may not yet have the self-awareness to know what they want to do.  From a physical point of view, it is common for teenagers’ noses to often look big for their faces, only to come into better proportion later.  There are no specific rules about this but it needs to be considered. Finally it is important to note that when a surgeon operates on a structure, future growth of that area is often inhibited.  So in a perfect world plastic surgeons prefer to wait to do rhinoplasties on teenagers until their nose has stopped growing.  Girls will typically stop growing earlier than boys.  Dr. Teitelbaum will ask patients whether they are still growing taller or whether their weight has stabilized. Another important consideration can be when a girl started her periods.  This all must be weighed against a young person’s self-esteem at a very delicate stage in their life, and the extent to which surgery will make them feel better at that point.