APS Aesthetic Plastic Surgery · 2014

Personality characteristics of patients seeking cosmetic rhinoplasty

Zojaji R, Arshadi HR, Keshavarz M, Mazloum Farsibaf M, Golzari F, Khorashadizadeh M.

What this paper says

Comparing 30 patients seeking cosmetic rhinoplasty with 30 matched controls, narcissistic personality traits were significantly more common in the patient group, while personality disorders overall were not common.

Overview

Cosmetic surgery changes appearance, satisfaction and self confidence, and the authors set out to test whether it also tracks with particular personality patterns. This case control study from Iran compared people referred for rhinoplasty against healthy volunteers matched for age and sex. All participants completed a standard personality questionnaire.

Sections of note

Case control study of 30 rhinoplasty patients and 30 age and gender matched healthy controls.
All participants completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory third edition.
Analysis used ANOVA and Fisher exact test.
The patient group was 24 women (80 percent) and 6 men (20 percent).
In the patient group, dependent personality disorder was found in 2, histrionic in 3 and narcissistic in 8.
Narcissistic personality traits were significantly more frequent in the patient group than in controls, p less than 0.001.
The authors conclude that personality disorders are not very common among people seeking rhinoplasty in Iran. Level of evidence IV.

What it means for a patient

Most people seeking rhinoplasty in this sample did not have a diagnosable personality disorder.
Narcissistic traits were the one pattern that stood out statistically, present in 8 of 30 patients.
Thirty patients is a small sample from a single country, so the findings may not carry to other settings.
Personality was measured by questionnaire at one point in time, and this design cannot show whether traits cause the decision to seek surgery.

Why this paper matters

Screening before cosmetic surgery is meant to identify patients unlikely to be satisfied by an operation, so which traits actually appear matters. Unanswered is whether any of these traits predicts dissatisfaction, repeat surgery or regret after rhinoplasty.

Terms

Case control study: a design comparing a group with a condition against a similar group without it.
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory: a standard questionnaire assessing personality patterns and disorders.
Narcissistic traits: a pattern of self focus and concern with appearance and admiration.
Histrionic personality disorder: a pattern of attention seeking and heightened emotional display.
Dependent personality disorder: a pattern of excessive reliance on others for decisions and reassurance.

Summary written by rhinoplasty.cc from the abstract, 2026-09-08; not medical advice. The authors' own abstract follows.

From the abstract

“Rhinoplasty is one of the most common cosmetic surgeries performed on the face. Cosmetic surgery is performed not only to change the appearance, level of satisfaction, and self-confidence of the patient, it may also reflect specific personality patterns. The goal of this study was to investigate the personality…”

Excerpt; the full abstract is on PubMed.