: How does computer imaging help my cosmetic procedure?
Robert Kotler, MD: Basically you capture the image on a screen, and then you make the changes, and now the patient can see the before and the after.
It's great, because it becomes a forum for discussion. Otherwise, it's too abstract.
Robert Kotler, MD (cont.): If the doctor says, yes, I can narrow your nose, and I can take the bump off, but doesn't show you how much, you really aren't going to have a clear idea of what you're signing up for.
Personally, I don't think anybody should have these procedures without the imaging because it's like buying a painting without seeing it.
This is a little bit of an exercise by an artist when you consider what the doctor is doing. You need to see the end result, and will you be happy?
Robert Kotler, MD (cont.): For example, there are patients that come in, have a very bulbous tip of their nose, I show them what I believe is a doable, achievable, a credible result and they say,
well can you make it even narrower. In their mind, they want something that I think isn't going to look right.
It's going to look too narrow, too overdone, too pinched, so I will show them that, and say you know, do you really want this, and they'll say, yeah, you know, you're right, I don't.
Let's go back to version 1.
Robert Kotler, MD (cont.): A wonderful place, a wonderful forum to exchange ideas. We need to have a common ground here. I need to know that when they look at that photo, they'd be happy,
and I also need to be able to be comfortable that I can deliver it. Those are the variables, will the patient be happy with what I portray, and can I deliver it?
Well, if the patient, after seeing even multiple options says yeah, I'd be happy with that, and I think it looks good, in other words, in my mind,
it looks right aesthetically, fits in, and then I say to myself, yeah, I can do that, I think we're going to have a happy patient.
Robert Kotler, MD (cont.): Now, the surgeon has to have the ability to match the blueprint. Can you build the house exactly as the blueprint says?
That's where the surgeon's integrity comes in. I wouldn't want to affirm to anything that I couldn't fulfill.
