Rhinoplasty associations, boards, meetings
Nobody is certified in rhinoplasty. A surgeon arrives at the operation through plastic surgery or through ear, nose and throat surgery, and the organisations below stand in for a specialty: one board per route, two large societies, one society for this operation alone, and the meetings where the technique moves. What each of them requires decides how much a membership badge on a practice website is worth.
What these bodies actually do
Four things worth knowing before reading a surgeon's credentials.
A board certifies a specialty, not this operation
The American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology certify the two routes; the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, established in 1986, certifies the subspecialty. None of them certifies rhinoplasty. A patient can verify certification, fellowship, teaching appointment and publication record, and cannot verify how many noses a surgeon has operated on, because no register exists. How the routes work is on how a rhinoplasty surgeon is trained.
A society is a membership organisation, and membership rules differ
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (founded 1931, more than 11,000 members) and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (more than 2,700) are the two large bodies, each publishing one of the journals this site indexes. The Aesthetic Society grew out of the audience at the first Baker Gordon Symposium in 1967. Membership means the surgeon met that body's criteria; it is not a ranking and not an audit of results.
One society exists for this operation alone
The Rhinoplasty Society was formed by 22 surgeons as a study group, held its first formal meeting in May 1997 with Jack Sheen presiding, and writes equal board representation for plastic surgeons and facial plastic surgeons into its by-laws, the only body in this list built across both routes.
The meetings are where technique moves, not the journals
A paper reaches the people who read that journal; a meeting reaches the people operating on Monday. The Dallas Rhinoplasty Meeting has run every year since 1984 and the Baker Gordon Symposium ran from 1967 to its final meeting in 2026. What they teach, and who teaches it, is on the training page.
The organisations, as they describe themselves
| Slug | Organization | Facts on record | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| the-rhinoplasty-society | The Rhinoplasty Society (TRS) | Formed by 22 plastic surgeons from the US and abroad; began as a study group; first formal meeting May 1997 preceding the ASAPS annual meeting; first president Jack H. Sheen. By-laws give plastic surgeons and facial plastic surgeons equal board representation. Non-profit; annual meeting with peer-reviewed papers; 2026 meeting Boston. President 2026–27 Robert Gilman (Ann Arbor); executive director Tyson Kidd. Public directory: 138 listings, 97 US. | therhinoplastysociety.org |
| aafprs | American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery | "represents more than 2,700 facial surgeons throughout the world"; AMA specialty society with House of Delegates representation; members board-certified, most by the American Board of Otolaryngology; Babak Azizzadeh (Beverly Hills) elected president at the September 2025 annual meeting, Los Angeles. Runs the AAFPRS Foundation fellowship program: 70 programs listed (research/doctors/sources/aafprs-fellowship-directors.md); application of intent for the 2028–29 cycle opens November 2026; applications due February 1, 2027. Journal: Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine (formerly JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery). HQ 310 S. Henry Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. | Wikipedia; fellowships.aafprs.org; aafprs.org |
| abfprs | American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery | "established in 1986"; physician finder at abfprs.org/physician-finder/. Certification requirements and ABMS status not stated on the fetched page. To confirm. | abfprs.org/about |
| asps | American Society of Plastic Surgeons | Founded 1931; "more than 11,000 physician members worldwide"; HQ Arlington Heights, IL; publishes Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery; runs The Plastic Surgery Foundation. Presidents 2000–2026 on file (Rohrich 2004, Matarasso 2019, Basu 2026). 2025 Procedural Statistics Report (PDF on file, data/_raw/asps-stats-2025.pdf): "Nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) 43,116" in 2025 vs 45,213 in 2024 (-5%); "Nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) declined 5 percent, reversing two consecutive years of growth"; ages 26–35: 10,025 (2025) vs 10,505 (2024); regional 2025: Region 5 Western 13,123, Region 3 South Atlantic 4,463, Region 4 Southeast+Texas 4,266 (table rows as extracted; verify region labels against the PDF). | Wikipedia; plasticsurgery.org |
| the-aesthetic-society | The Aesthetic Society (formerly ASAPS) | Traces to the first Baker Gordon Symposium (Feb 1967): "a small group of plastic surgeons attending the first Baker Gordon Symposium recognized that advancements in aesthetic surgery required a national organization… This led to the formation of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery". Officers 2026–27: President Jamil Ahmad, President-Elect Nolan Karp, VP Trent Douglas, Treasurer/Secretary Douglas Steinbrech, Immediate Past President Tracy Pfeifer; Aesthetic Foundation President David A. Sieber. Journal: Aesthetic Surgery Journal. TRS's first meeting was held before the ASAPS meeting (1997). | 2026 BG program; theaestheticsociety.org |
| dallas-rhinoplasty-meeting | Dallas Cosmetic Medicine & Rhinoplasty Meetings | Founded 1984 by Gunter and Oneal as the Dallas Rhinoplasty Course/Symposium; chair Rod J. Rohrich; 43rd meeting March 20–22, 2026, Westin Galleria Dallas; Jack P. Gunter Distinguished Lecture. | research/history/dallas-rhinoplasty.md |
| baker-gordon-symposium | Baker Gordon Educational Symposium | Founded 1967 (Baker, Gordon), Miami; first US aesthetic-surgery meeting and first with live surgery; director James M. Stuzin; 60th and final meeting Feb 5–7, 2026. | research/history/baker-gordon.md |
| isaps | International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery | "Founded in 1970, the ISAPS charter was signed at the United Nations in NYC." Over 6,000 members across 117 countries; HQ 19 Morgan Drive, Lebanon, NH 03766; journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery; World Congress 2026 Cancún. 2024 Global Survey (released 2025-06-20; announced at the ISAPS Olympiad World Congress, Singapore): "rhinoplasty with 1 million procedures and a 10% decrease"; "rhinoplasties (60.1%)… took place on 18–34-year-olds"; "more than 17.4 million procedures performed by plastic surgeons" in 2024. | isaps.org/discover/about-isaps/; PR Newswire 2025-06-20 |
| ars | American Rhinologic Society | Pending. | Pending |
| eafps | European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery | Pending. | Pending |
| rhinoplasty-society-of-europe | Rhinoplasty Society of Europe | Pending. | Pending |
What is still missing
- The American Rhinologic Society, the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery and the Rhinoplasty Society of Europe are listed above as pending: nothing on this site states anything about them yet.
- The American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery's certification requirements and its relationship to the American Board of Medical Specialties are not stated on the page read here, and are not asserted.
- The AAFPRS fellowship handbook records each programme's rhinoplasty emphasis across 153 pages; it has not been extracted, so the training page lists programmes and directors without saying how much rhinoplasty each teaches.
- Membership figures and meeting attendance are the organisations' own numbers. None is independently audited.
- The journals these bodies publish, and every rhinoplasty paper in them, are in the journal archive.
Written by rhinoplasty.cc from the sources linked above, 2026-09-09.