Rhinoplasty or nose-job is perhaps one of the most difficult operations in facial plastic surgery. The combination of function and form involving bone, cartilage and soft tissue makes rhinoplasty a most challenging procedure to get consistently pleasing results. No two noses are the same, so the rhinoplasty surgeon needs vast experience of a myriad of techniques, to obtain a good result.
Kalpesh Patel is an established Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon based at The Imperial College Hospitals (St Mary's campus), one of England's leading medical institutions and the first academic health centre in the United Kingdom. For the first few years as a Consultant, Mr Patel's practice was focussed on treating patients with head & neck cancer performing large tumour resections and rebuilding the head, neck and face with plastic surgery. Around the time of the millennium, strategic changes in the health authority meant the all head & neck surgery was to be relocated to the Charing Cross site of the hospital trust, so Mr Patel changed his surgical interest to rhinoplasty surgery operating on NHS patients with breathing and post traumatic deformities.
Cosmetic and functional nasal surgery has a huge overlap in terms of techniques and thus Mr Patel has been able to draw on his vast experience with nose and sinus surgery for nasal blockage and the aesthetic requirements for facial surgery.
Kalpesh Patel runs an annual course in facial plastic surgery attended by junior surgeons from all over the world wherein he teaches all aspects of nasal surgery. Mr Patel set up a quarterly rhinoplasty forum in 2008 which is an academic meeting discussing the latest advances in the field of rhinoplasty surgery and presents recent interesting and difficult cases in order to teach the next generation of rhinoplasty surgeons. Mr Patel is a founding member of the British Society of Rhinoplasty Surgeons. This society accepts members from ENT, plastic surgery and maxillofacial backgrounds with the sole aim of disseminating information about rhinoplasty to improve the standard of rhinoplasty surgery in the United Kingdom.
Mr Patel sees patients in his consulting room at 99 Harley Street and at other clinic locations. Patients are referred by GPs, consultant colleagues, embassies and most commonly by previous patients operated on by Mr Patel. Having worked in London for many years, Mr Patel has experience and understanding of the nuances of ethnic rhinoplasty reflecting the various types of patients he treats. Mr Patel has highly developed aesthetic values in respect of nasal surgery but adopts a conservative approach to achieve results which are harmonious with the face. The ultimate aim is to achieve a result which looks unoperated and blends with the rest of the facial features and where necessary to improve the nasal airway.