This week I had my consultation with Dr. Zarrinbal so thought I'd write a post about the experience after meeting the famous doctor. I've had consultations with five plastic surgeons now (not all for the same issues), but I can say the consultation experience with Dr. Z has by far been the best. I'm not sure how long the actual consultation was supposed to be, but we spent over an hour together discussing in lots of detail the different procedures, observing my CT scan and doing a physical examination. Other consultations I've had felt very impersonal and rushed, over in 10 minutes. His English is also fantastic, completely fluent.
In the end, because of my lack of functional issues, we decided a BSSO would be overkill and settled for chin wing. It seems to be a very good compromise between aesthetics and cost / recovery time / surgical risk. The chin wing can increase chin projection, jaw vertical height and simulate CCW rotation of the mandible. The visor / shield part of the procedure prevents the mentolabial fold from becoming too deep as can happen with sliding genioplasty / chin implant. I brought up a concern about the effect on the jaw angles because if you look at how the bone is moved, it's clear they will become at least somewhat blunted. However, this is the aesthetic tradeoff of the chin wing but IMO it is massively outweighed by the positive aesthetic changes. The gap in the bone is filled with bone harvested from the hip. I asked about using alternative materials to avoid the scar and additional surgery however based on his past experiences Dr Z was not fond of them. Resorption is not an issue.
I saw before and afters of loads of patients who Dr Z has operated on across his spectrum of procedures, including chin wing, rhinoplasty, BSSO / bimax and ZSO. All were very impressive and he has a very good eye for aesthetics. He will give a very natural, harmonious result by default. Some patients have requested more extreme results and he is also happy to comply with that. The ZSO results for men exceeded my expectations after all the flak the procedure has received on various forums (this one included). In one of the before and afters, the eye area of the male was massively improved by the ZSO - his lower eyelid was raised by the additional support and he looked much younger and healthier. I double checked with Z that he didn't have any other procedures done to the eyes, but he apparently only had a ZSO.
As an aside - these procedures will not turn you into a male model. If you have a genuine bony deficiency this can be corrected and you can get a substantial aesthetic improvement. And as long as your expectations are correctly set and the procedure goes as expected, you will be a happy patient.
The Havelklinik itself is quite nice and easily accessible from Berlin Tegel airport. The floor where Dr Z is based could do with a bit of freshening up. For example, a water cooler in the waiting area. But other than that, fairly unremarkable.
So, what next? Unfortunately the CT scan I had done was not the type that Dr Z needed so I'm going to fly back to Berlin in a few months when I'm financially in a position to get the surgery and have it done at Mesantis. The flights, hotel and CT scan actually cost about the same as getting a CT scan done in my country so I figure I may as well ensure it's definitely the right kind of scan and see Dr Z again with any other questions.
Dr Zarrinbal's Notes
