(Pictures below)
I had surgery with Dr Javier Luis Rossi in Buenos Aires earlier this year, I trusted him with my long awaited FFS, and he turned my hopes in to a living nightmare.
I contacted his clinic "T-change" about 6 months before the surgery and talked to the coordinator named Amanda.
I sent in photos etc and me and her decided over email that I was going to do forehead type 3, rhinoplasty, as well as jaw and chin surgery. A lip lift was included free of charge if Dr Rossi deemed it necessary. The total price for FFS was about $15 000.
I had no contact with the surgeon until the in-person consultation right before the surgery date. This should have set off alarm bells, but after waiting for so long, I just wanted the surgery to finally move forward with my life. Since he seemed to have decent reviews, I didn't overthink it at the time.
Arriving in Buenos Aires, I was met by Amanda and taken to my Airbnb, where preparations began with standard blood work and an X-ray. Dr. Rossi had decided against doing a CT scan, calling it unnecessary. At this point canceling would have meant losing my payment entirely, so I decided to keep going despite my growing concerns.
We then got to the in person consultation with Dr Rossi and this is where it started getting obvious that he's not someone who cares about his craft or the patients he performs surgery on.
The consultation lasted about 5 minutes. He apologized for being 30 minutes late and for forgetting his laptop so he couldn't show me his 3d virtual surgery simulation using some software.
Dr Rossi has the personality of a sleazy car salesman. He didn't give any real info on what he was going to do, he instead repeatedly just said that "it's going to be wonderful darling". He showed no pictures of former patients and told me to not be worried. Again, alarm bells!!!
He mentioned the free lip lift and said that he doesn't like doing the bullhorn method and that he prefers the "direct" lip lift method. Another name for it is apparently gullwing lip lift.
I had never heard of this method but he insisted on that this is the best way to do it and that I was going to "look wonderful darling!"
I was stupid enough to trust him on this and it cost me dearly.
After waking up from the surgery I stayed one night at the hospital and was then taken back to the Airbnb.
The aftercare was rather lackluster, I got no pain meds or anything, just some anti inflammatory and antibiotics. Nothing for pain.
My concerns started growing when I saw the shape of my upper lip. He had completely removed the cupids bow and the incision had slanted off the edge of my lip and went about half an inch off straight to the side. While i obviously had a lot of swelling it was clear that this wasn't done very well. I mentioned this to Amanda and she pretended not to see it at first, and told me that I'm swollen and shouldn't worry so much.
At a meeting post op with Dr Rossi and Amanda the lip lift result was brought up again and Dr Rossi just dismissed it and said it was done perfectly and that "it looks wonderful!!"
I brought it up again with Amanda right before leaving for the airport and she again pretended not to see it, until she finally caved in and said yes but it'll heal just right.
I gave it time for swelling etc to go down and I can now say that he's wronged me on more things than just botching my upper lip.
Brow bone: There is a little difference, but not a whole lot. my left orbital is kind of "sticking out" quite a bit and i can feel a gap in my skull if i run my finger over my left orbital. The right orbital is flatter and doesnt have the issues the left one does, so it is very uneven looking.
The browbone above the nose area still sticks out quite a bit, it's as if he's left a little too much. It's far from "the amazing forehead results" I hear people say about his forehead work on this very subreddit. And as mentioned my left orbital isn't shaved down properly and i can feel a gap in my skull.
nose: No major complaints, i think it looks good in side profile, a little wonky from the front but again not great, not terrible.
Chin and jaw: He didn't touch the actual angle of the mandible, but instead did a very conservative shave of one side of the jaw, it looks the same in before and after pictures.
On the other side however he was way more aggressive with the shave, and since he didn't touch the angle of the jaw this time either, I now have a deep indent in my jaw (see picture)
So now I have an indent in my jaw and then the mandibular angle still sticking out!
As for the chin, the sliding genioplasty was also very conservative, but even then he still managed to make it uneven, if you look closely you can see that one side of my chin sits a little lower than the other, it's not a massive imperfection but still further proof that his work was very sloppy.
The biggest problem is clearly my lip, he not only performed the lip lift incorrectly, as the so called direct method should follow the edges of the entire lips, to keep the M shaped cupids bow, and lift the lip evenly like with the bullhorn method, and not just make a line in the middle like he did. As mentioned earlier he also slanted the knife off by about half an inch making my scars look even worse.
Even if the scars would have turned out fine, the shape of the lips are ruined as the M shape is completely removed, now it looks like my upper lip is a lower lip turned upside down.
I contacted them and they refuse to understand where I'm coming from and think everything went great. I guess from their perspective it is true, they got my money and to them that's all that matters.
They said that the scar is unfortunate but that the lip lift was otherwise successful (EXCUSE ME WHAT?!?!?!?!). I feel lied to and deeply betrayed by two people i decided to put my trust in to.
I've consulted with several surgeons regarding my lip and they all said that it's extremely unfortunate that he did this, that it was unprofessional and extremely poorly performed, and that it is sadly going to be borderline impossible to fix.
Today, I’m left not just with disappointing results and an empty wallet, but with a lasting reminder of how badly this experience has affected my confidence. Trusting Dr. Rossi was the biggest mistake of my life, and I suffer daily from the choices he made with my face.
I will not show pictures of my entire face due to todays political climate but I've provided pictures of my complaints made in this post.
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