Turkish Translation and Validation of the Expectations of Aesthetic Rhinoplasty Scale

Overview

Unrealistic expectations predict dissatisfaction, and the EARS questionnaire measures them, but only in English. The Turkish authors produced EARS-T, had 51 primary rhinoplasty candidates and 81 healthy volunteers complete it twice four weeks apart, and tested consistency, reliability and the ability to distinguish patients from controls.

Sections of note

• 51 patients, 81 controls; groups differed in age and sex (p = 0.001) but this did not affect results (age p = 0.2; sex p = 0.12).
• Scale scores differed significantly between patients and controls (all p < 0.05).
• Cronbach's alpha 0.74-0.87 across subscales.
• Test-retest intraclass correlation 0.71-0.87.
• The scale is proposed for preoperative consultation and research.

What it means for a patient

• Surgeons can now measure expectations in Turkish-speaking patients with a validated tool before surgery.
• A high expectation score is a prompt for a fuller conversation, not a refusal.
• The paper validates the questionnaire; it does not report surgical results.

Why this paper matters

Turkey is one of the highest-volume rhinoplasty markets, and a validated expectations tool there supports both safer selection and comparable research. Limits: modest sample, single centre.

Terms

• EARS: Expectations of Aesthetic Rhinoplasty Scale, a questionnaire on what patients hope surgery will achieve.
• Cronbach's alpha: a measure of internal consistency.
• Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC): a measure of test-retest agreement.
• Cross-cultural adaptation: adjusting a questionnaire so it means the same thing in another language and culture.