I am scheduled for an FFS with Spiegel in 4 months. I decided to go with Spiegel because he is on the east coast and a couple of my friends recommended him. Having read a little bit about him in this subreddit, I can see that there are some mixed opinions on him. I am not using my insurance, so I can take my money and go elsewhere if I so desire. I transitioned young, so I don't need a lot of work done and would prefer a more subtle look. Is Spiegel as bad as some people say, or his he still a great surgeon? If he is bad, who should I consult with instead?
I would have recommended Bryan Rolfes after seeing so many bad spiegel reviews
I haven't encountered any reviews that genuinely scare me. Most of them seem to be complaints about Spiegel being too conservative and minimalistic, which I am honestly fine with.I don't quite understand the logic behind the claim that Rofles who is less experienced and trained by Spiegel, is somehow a better surgeon?
He’s more trained in actually being a craniofacial surgeon. I don’t believe Spiegel is a craniofacial surgeon. he’s maybe the leader in type 3 or was but I think the rest of his ffs techniques are contouring and not cutting. Though the work I’ve seen from his well known students seem to be far superior to Spiegel. Spiegel is not well like I’m the ffs pages I’m Facebook. Though it’s at your own cost. So choose who you want.
Proteges can be better as they refine the technique of their mentors.
Bryan Rolfes he is so much better than Spiegel. Look him up on Realself and here you'll find very happy patients and no nerve damage or botched surgeries.
I can't talk about Spiegel but I am completely happy with my FFS from Dr. Rolfes.
Weren't you complaining just yesterday how another doctor bribes realself to remove negative complaints? And now no complaints means something?
What do you mean? That's by another patient of his from India whom Bart Van de Ven botched not me.
I mean you joined in.
I did join in and did say Bart Van de Ven pays for his most recent negative reviews removed which I've also noticed as even mine got removed. There is a difference between having no botched reviews from the start to having an influx of botched reviews to suddenly having much less and most of the recent complaints disappearing.
How do you know others surgeons are not doing the same? A lack of negative reviews on realself basically means nothing. And positive reviews are not any better.
I don't I'm simply basing it off on the fact that so far Bryan Rolfes has been consistently producing good results and patients give very good feedback on his bedside manner etc. You seem to suspect he may be doing the same as Bart so why don't you provide the evidence he does? And I disagree that both reviews good or bad or lack thereof don't mean anything because they do mean something. Any surgeon should be looked at with scrutiny but not to the point you are paranoid to think they are all criminals because the bad ones are often so incompetent it becomes obvious overtime. Despite what happened to me I remain to have faith that some doctors out there do want to provide good and safe surgery for us. Sure they're in it for the money which is fine as long as they ensure they do not harm us in the process. Rolfes doesn't even advertise that much and his clinic also caters to cisgender people.
You’ll be fine with Spiegel, most of the negativity I found on this subreddit about him came from one or two of the same people who would post the same things in every thread mentioning him.
I went to him so before I did I was doing my homework and looked into the negative Reddit reviews. One I was able to dismiss pretty hard because she claimed Spiegel “snarled” at her, I saw her post the same thing about a baby in a push chair before she had surgery so I’m fairly she was just suffering with mental health issues. She posted many many times about Spiegel on a few different but easily linked together accounts (she kept getting banned and had to create new accounts). She also posted a picture in which she described herself as a Horrifically botched monster , and in the picture she looked like a very attractive cis woman! Body dysmorphia is a hell of a drug
Just remember that about Reddit is while there’s no “bias” in what gets posted, there’s also no review that it’s correct either.
The other few people who posted that he’d horribly botched their face, some of them posted pictures of themselves looking absolutely fine.
This was in 2017 but I was not able to actually find any legit negative reviews where the person genuinely had been made to look worse.
I ended up choose him and was all good. my only complaint when I went back a second time with my wife in 2018 is he had switched to in office surgeries without a hospital stay, which I felt uncomfortable with, but was still completely fine.
Take negative reviews, especially those without outrageous claims ,with a big grain of salt, verify them with as much vigor as positive reviews!
I think the most common issue is people seem to consider not getting the perfect cis looking outcome of their dreams a “botched” result. They also consider complications that are just luck of the draw to be “botching” I’ve noticed.
Thank you! It has been difficult to know who to trust when it comes to this. Most of the people that I have encountered that were aggressively against Spiegel, had not even met the guy so it made me think that this might just be group think based on a couple of reviews.
Spiegel operates out of his office, instead of a hospital? I know he has OR's upstairs, but I didn't know he did full FFS surgeries there. I honestly don't mind outpatient. After spending a while in hospital after srs, I am kinda relieved not having to spend more nights in hospitals lol.
Are you and your wife happy with your results? Was he more subtle or aggressive with you? Did you ask him about the rumors floating around that he lets resident surgeons operate on patients?
I felt my face was very different after surgery and my wife’s looks pretty different too. I sometimes wonder if another surgeon might have been better (like braley) but overall I’m happy. I wouldn’t call myself pretty but my face dysphoria is 95% eliminated. Very rare are the days I’ll stare in the mirror thinking how ugly and mannish I am, used to be very single day. Now I mostly think it about my torso!
Reddit absolutely groupthinks very badly around surgeons, it feels very dunning Kruger when people insist reddit reviews are the “true unbiased ones”
Do you think Braly would be better because he is more aggressive or just overall a better surgeon? I am glad to hear that you are happy with your results, and I hope I will be as well. I am generally pretty happy about my current face, but I would like Spiegel to be a little bit aggressive on my forehead.
Ask him to be. I had a conversation with him about it and he agreed beforehand to go hog wild if he felt it needed. He also commented that the idea he is too conservative comes from pictures of people who specifically asked him to be so! Open and frank conversations with your surgeons about you worries are the best thing!
Braley might be better but for me he wasnt 20k better (price difference at the time).
I just had FFS with Spiegel 5 weeks ago and I'm very happy with how things look, and can attest that he was very "aggressive" in areas I asked him to be. He was very responsive in discussions during my initial consult and pre-surgery visit, and did adjust the surgery plan to fit.
My nose is radically different in a wonderful way, my jawline is much softer, and my field of vision is literally different now because of the extent of changes to my brow. The changes are definitely pronounced compared to what I looked like before.
The day he took my nose cast off was amazing and so dramatic! Loved it
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