Plastic surgeons consider many factors when they are deciding if a person is a good candidate for rhinoplasty or not. The first factor is of course the candidate's age. Most plastic surgeons will not perform cosmetic rhinoplasty on a person who is under the age of fourteen or fifteen for girls, or fifteen or sixteen for boys. This is because adolescents go through their final growth spurt around these ages and the size and shape of the person's nose is still changing before the completion of this growth spurt. If, however, the rhinoplasty is intended to correct a structural problem or to correct a deformity, it may be necessary to address the family's concerns early in order to reduce the amount of psychological and emotional damage the physical deformity will cause the child.
The next factor that the surgeon will consider is if the person is healthy enough to undergo surgery. A full physical including blood work may be required to determine if the person will be able to handle the stresses imposed by surgery and the effect of the anesthesia. If a candidate is a smoker, they may be required to give up smoking at least a month before the surgery to ensure that their lungs will be healthy enough to handle sedation. Other conditions that may reduce the chance that a person will be allowed to get rhinoplasty include HIV, chemotherapy, infections, heart disease, cancer, or any other condition that reduces the body's ability to heal or handle physical stress.
Emotional and psychological health of a surgery candidate are also taken into consideration. To be considered a good candidate for rhinoplasty you should have realistic expectations of what the surgery will be able to do for you, and ideally you should be having the surgery to simply improve your self-esteem instead of creating your self-esteem.