After finishing his ENT specialty in Lisbon, Dr. Luís Dores started his career as a specialist in the Algarve in 2015, a place where he had already had professional experience and where he wanted to develop his medical scientific career. “I started working in the public sector at the hospital in Portimão and in Faro, as well as at the HPA clinics”.


Currently Dr. Luís main surgical focus are the Rhinologic Diseases (nose and paranasal sinuses), Rhinoplasty, Otoplasty (prominent ear deformity) and he also coordinates the "Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Group” which deals with benign and malignant pathologies of the head and neck. In the private sector, he is employed at the HPA clinics in Alvor and Guia. "Most surgeries are made at the HPA clinic in Alvor; paediatric surgeries are performed at the Gambela's Hospital in Faro," the physician said.

Dr. Luís Dores distinguished himself in the field of Rhinology during his academic career. "My entire training, both theoretical and practical, was focused on the field of Rhinology. Not only did I learn how to treat rhinitis and rhinosinusitis medically and surgically, but I also started working on studying the aesthetic aspect of the nose" he says. Luís Dores completed his undergraduate studies at Lisbon’s University School of Medicine, located in the St. Maria Hospital, between 2002 and 2008. In 2009, he completed a general internship at Portimão's Hospital, where he was exposed to many medical and surgical specialties.

In order to become an ENT specialist, Dr. Luís returned to the Hospital St. Maria in 2010 where he studied for an additional five years. He also had the chance to do a six-month ‘Facial Plastic surgery’ internship in London at the Lewisham University Hospital. "I completed an internship with an ENT surgeon in London during my training, which was devoted to facial plastic surgery - basically everything related to the medical and surgical treatments of the face, mainly Rhinoplasty and Otoplasty." He emphasises, saying, "I knew right away that I wanted to return to the Algarve as a specialist after that internship that I conducted here in Portimão; After my internship in London, I took the final specialty exam and came straight to the Algarve”.

According to Dr. Luís Dores, “Rhinology is the medical science devoted to the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the nose and the paranasal sinuses. Within Rhinology, we treat mainly rhinitis and sinusitis which cause symptoms like nasal obstruction, nasal congestion, headaches, chronic cough, and smell disorders”. He clarified that a Rhinoplasty surgery can approach both functional and aesthetic issues. If a patient has a severe drooping nasal tip, this indicates that the air passage is not being carried properly, which will cause both an aesthetic and a functional breathing issue for the patient. “There are structural components of the nose that, when operated on to improve the functional part, also end up altering its aesthetics, and vice versa.”

When asked what motivates people to see a specialist in this field, Dr. Dores said, "It often depends on the patient's complaint." Some patients see a specialist primarily for functional issues, while others do so for aesthetic reasons. However, he stressed that, occasionally, patients who come to see him for functional issues also express discomfort about the appearance of their noses. “Thus, we realize that we can treat not only the functional part, but we can complement the treatment with an aesthetics component.” But as the physician notes, the inverse is also possible. "Some patients only seek our care for their appearance, but during consultations and imaging tests, we find that they also have some function issues. We then take advantage of these findings and address both in the same procedure."

Credits: Supplied Image;

The standard procedure entails an initial consultation in which potential functional and anatomical abnormalities are evaluated. As Dr. Luís explained, “At that first appointment a photographic record is made, and an immediate simulation of the result we want in the long term is conducted by computer simulation”. In the second consultation, when test results are already available, Dr. Dores says that “We make the surgical proposal and after six or eight weeks we can move on to surgery.” The surgeon explains that most Rhinoplasty procedures, which is a process carried out under general anesthesia and takes around three to four hours, per norm, is done as an outpatient procedure, meaning the patient returns home the same day.

"We have the first post-operative consultation one week following the surgery, during which the exterior nose cast and the nose splint (if necessary) are removed." From that point on, the patient can begin to lead a normal life. A last appointment is then conducted after 15 days, where the patient can start exercising. As stated by Dr. Luís Dores "The best Rhinoplasties are the ones you can't see; they're the ones where the patient feels better and more self-assured. The main effect isn't the nose operation itself, but rather the improvement in the patient’s facial harmony, which you can't always tell was achieved with a Rhinoplasty."

Dr. Luís Dores Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.luis.almeida.dores/

Author

After studying Journalism for five years in the UK and Malta, Sara Durães moved back to Portugal to pursue her passion for writing and connecting with people. A ‘wanderluster’, Sara loves the beach, long walks, and sports. 

Sara J. Durães