Dr. Douglas Mathew Sidle, MD

Okay… here’s the honest tea about my rhinoplasty +lower bleph with Dr. Douglas Sidle at Northwestern, because if I don’t say it, literally no one will. I already posted a review once, and it mysteriously disappeared from Yelp the next day. So here we go again. I paid $13.5k upfront (yep, no financing), and I really wish someone had grabbed me by the shoulders beforehand and told me what I’m about to tell you. So, the pre-op vibes? Off. Like, I didn’t notice it in the moment because he’s fast-talking and super confident, but watching the videos back… yikes. He kept saying things like “I already prepped for your case” before I even finished my questions, and every answer turned into this long monologue about “illusion” and “acuter spots.” I’d ask, “Are you shaving something down?” and he’d go, “It creates the illusion of the nose sitting higher”. Sir, that is NOT what I asked. Even my mom had to jump in with, “Are you breaking her nose?” and he’s just like “Yes.” So casual. My eyebrow… flew off. And then the bleph. GIRL. The way he slid that in like a last-minute add-on? One minute he’s telling me I’m “a good but not great candidate”, and the next he’s like “Oh, we’re doing it, yeah”. As if it’s a lip gloss at checkout. Looking back, I should’ve slowed down, but when you’re in the Northwestern building with a surgeon who talks like he’s already halfway through your surgery in his head… it’s very easy to get swept up and say yes to things you didn’t fully understand. Anyway. The results. Deep breath. My nose ended up… potato-coded. Rounded, swollen-looking, and absolutely not the nose that was shown to me on the screen. Then came the issues. I’ve had recurring nasal infections, my breathing is worse than before, and now I mouth-breathe at night like a dehydrated pug. It’s exhausting. My sleep is wrecked. And the blepharoplasty? My eyes are permanently red and irritated. The under-eye skin is fragile now. Some mornings my eyelids literally stick together. And my face… looks different. Like my ethnicity got wiped off. My features look generic, like someone put me into a face generator on “default settings”. Losing the face you’ve known your whole life is a very specific kind of heartbreak I wasn’t prepared for. What shocked me most was what I found AFTER things started going wrong. I finally looked up his older reviews going back over a decade and everything people were saying then lines up exactly with what I experienced: the dismissiveness, the “swelling” excuses, the breathing issues, the changes you didn’t consent to, and the general vibe of “it’s fine” even when it’s very much not fine. The pattern is VERY real. I just didn’t know. If you’re considering him, PLEASE do multiple consults. Don’t get hypnotized by fast talking. Don’t assume “Northwestern” means safe. And don’t let anyone rush you into decisions about your face. I wish I had slowed down and done more research. If this helps even one girl avoid what I’m dealing with right now, then rewriting this review was worth it even if the last one vanished.

I strongly advise against seeing Dr. Sidle. I visited him for a septoplasty with minor cosmetic adjustments – a slight bump reduction and tip refinement. What should have been a routine procedure quickly turned into a nightmare. After surgery, I developed a severe infection that Dr. Sidle mishandled from the start. He ignored clear signs of trouble, delayed treatment, and dismissed my concerns, which ultimately resulted in lasting damage. When the situation became undeniable, he offered no real assistance, only deflection and gaslighting. What was supposed to improve my breathing and appearance left me disfigured and deeply traumatized. In my experience, Dr. Sidle is negligent, unaccountable, and dangerously incompetent. Do not trust him with your health or appearance.

DO NOT SEE THIS SURGEON – on 10/17/24 I went in for a facelift, upper & lower blepharoplasty, (upper and lower eyelids) and a deep plane chemical peel, ($28,000 total). Yesterday (1/28/25), I had an appointment with Premier Dermatology and the doctor informed me that the scarring from the chemical peel is permanent. On the right side of my face the chemical burn extends from the temple all the way down my cheek and neck. The photos really don’t do the scarring justice, but as you can see there is additional scarring around my hair line, ear and under my chin. The last photo shows how my pores have been torn open. I plan to see my ophthalmologist in the near future because my right eye is red and very irritated ALL OF THE TIME, never mind the fact that they are no longer symmetrical. Prior to the procedure, Sidle said that he would remove the pocket of fat above my right eye. As you can see from the photos, that didn’t happen. Liam Payne (singer from One Direction) passed away one… day before my procedure and I was awake while Sidle was performing the chemical peel. He was requesting boy band songs on Siri and singing along. Apparently it was more important to entertain everyone than it was to ensure the best possible outcome for the patient. PLEASE read the negative reviews on Dr. Sidle. On healthgrades, 38% of his reviews are one star and his rating is 3.5. On RateMDs his rating is 2.5. From his $585 ten-minute consultations to the number of people (like me) that have been permanently scarred and disfigured. On doctor.webmd, there are several reviews where the minimal adjustments were requested and Sidle performed a total reconstruction on the patient with CATASTROPHIC results, charging the patient’s insurance as much as $50,000. According to Sidle’s webpage, he has been in practice for 29 years. How is it possible that he only has 48 reviews on Google? My ophthalmologist graduated from university in 1999 and she has 395 reviews with a 4.9 rating. I’m 61 years old and I lost my job in January of 2024. Who is going to hire me looking like this? I paid the $28,000 because I DIDN’T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN and I don’t want it to happen to anyone else. PLEASE FIND A DIFFERENT SURGEON.

I went in for a consultation that was supposed to be free and I was billed $585.00 a whole 4 months later for my 10 minute consultation. I also did not choose him to do my surgery because I felt like something was just off about him after meeting with him.

I had very subtle and conservative cosmetic goals for my primary rhinoplasty. Yet Sidle destroyed my nasal breathing function and nasal anatomy with medically unnecessary and extremely destructive functional procedures. He non-consensually substituted my 1 hour cosmetic plan with unnecessary and forced multi-hour total functional nasal reconstruction, demolishing all my natural anatomy with unnecessary over-resections, amputations and implants. Sidle damaged blood supply along the entire length of my nose, leading to total atrophy, damaged the insides of the nasal cavities (turbinate bones), causing debilitating "empty nose syndrome". Sidle knew he was going to injure me and proceeded, just to get to my insurance money and train his students. Sidle billed my insurance tens of thousands dollars for those medically unnecessary harmful procedures. All I feel now is a severe trauma to my respiratory function, face and head. Don't fall victim to this dishonest and extremely unsafe… physician.

I recently underwent a rhinoplasty and submental liposuction with Dr. Sidle and my experience was incredible! Dr. Sidle’s PA, Erin, was so kind and helpful in scheduling my consult with Dr. Sidle. During my consult both Erin and Dr. Sidle answered all the questions I had and were very thorough on what to expect with surgery and postop care. I felt very reassured! Dr. Sidle morphed my images during the appointment so we can decide what changes I’d like to make and the outcome is even better than the images! He did the best job ensuring that my new nose fits my face, my jaw line is more defined and most importantly I still look like myself (but better)! He is very detail oriented. The surgery and postop period went so smooth and I am so grateful. Dr. Sidle checked in on me the day after surgery which was so kind. I 100% recommend Dr. Sidle to anyone in search of a wonderful surgeon and team!

Thought I went to a reputable medical institution in Chicago for a minor aesthetic adjustment (1.0hr+ procedure). Instead, they forced a full functional reconstruction of my nose. Nasal bones and dorsal lines were completely hacked, wood-hard rib pieces inserted along the full septal length (I feel discomfort from those things 24/7!), tip ligaments were severed, lateral cartilage and crura resected and/or removed, radix erased, caudal septum hacked, cut off and thrown away like an unneeded body part, columella thinned, de-vascularized and severely traumatized, retreating all the way to the septum, voluminous scroll area in the midvault hacked, cut out and thrown away as if it was an unneeded body part. They also cut off blood supply from the tip to nasal sides to radix. Alar rims retracted by up to 1cm, nose shortened by about the same length of 1cm. Soft tissues underneath the skin completely atrophied. Normal nose thus became a pinocchio-like nose. Severe dysautonomia nightmare due… to the respiratory distress followed. To add to the insult, a doctor took a soldering iron called "coblation device" and burnt the insides of my nasal cavities, causing permanent damage to submucosal glands, stroma and cilia, leading to severe dryness, excessive open space inside the nasal cavities and, ultimately, "empty nose syndrome" (ENS), respiratory distress and sleep apnea, among other nasty health issues that that doctor created for me. This is how Sidle treated me, forcing 3.5 hour functional septo-rhinoplasty procedure that was medically unnecessary, aesthetically damaging and completely premeditated by Douglas M. Sidle & Co. at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, just to get to my insurance money and train his residents/fellows multiple procedures on a living human being. It was not only Douglas Sidle who caused me harm and injury on the operating table that day. Half of the assault came from Douglas Sidle's ghost surgeon, an unsupervised AAFPRS fellow . Of course, Douglas Sidle has billed my insurance tens of thousands dollars for those medically unnecessary harmful procedures. Douglas Sidle himself has increased his own payout by $9K+, billing my insurance company the so-called "professional changes" for those medically unnecessary maneuvers. Interestingly, before and right after the surgery, Sidle told me that he "didn't need to do much on me", and that he "won't bill insurance". Sidle and his/its hospital billed my insurance a total of $60k! To sum it up, Sidle's true qualification is taking a normal healthy functioning nose and converting it into a nonfunctional pinocchio-like structure with severe respiratory distress. Douglas Sidle's true calling in this world should be swiping Chicago alleys, definitely not treating patients, as obviously Sidle doesn't know what he is doing to the living beings that happen to get into his hospital trap. Sidle does a lot of intentional harm in the medical field by premeditatively pushing medically unnecessary harmful procedures on his patients, as you can see from other Sidle's patients reviews over the last decade. In 2001-2002, his actions as a resident at Northwestern during the neck surgery of a patient, have led to the death of that patient, with a few million dollars paid to the patient's estate and lawyers after the jury trial. All I feel now is a severe trauma to my upper respiratory function and my face. All I see now is extreme postsurgical atrophy of the operated sites (up to 40%!), caused by this dishonest surgeon(s) at a "reputable" institute in the city of Chicago. It was more of a gang ra-pe rather than a surgery: Sidle and his ghost surgeon have ripped me off of my health, destroyed my good aesthetics, robbed thousands of dollars from my insurance. Insulted my grandmother. Insulted my grandfather. Insulted my mother. Insulted my father. Assaulted and insulted myself. Run when you see that name on a surgery panel list: Douglas Matthew Sidle. That individual's corruptio

Imagine this. You go to a reputable medical institution in Chicago, for a minor aesthetic adjustment of your nose - put some tissue here, lift the tip there - that should last no more than 1.5 hours. Instead, you are treated with the forced full reconstruction of your nose, with your nasal bones and dorsal lines completely hacked, wood-hard rib pieces inserted along the full septal length, tip ligaments severed, lateral cartilage and crura resected and/or removed, radix erased, columella thinned and traumatized, retreating to the septum, caudal septum hacked and thrown away, voluminous scroll area in the midvault hacked and thrown away, alar rims retracting by up to 1cm. Normal??becomes ??. To add to the insult, the doctor takes a soldering iron and burns the insides of your nose, causing permanent damage to mucosal glands and cilia, leading to severe dryness, excessive open space inside nasal cavities and, ultimately, “empty nose syndrome” (ENS) and respiratory distress. Half of the… insult done by Sidle’s ghost surgeon, an AAFPRS fellow. This is how Sidle treated me with a forced 3.5 hour septorhinoplasty procedure that was medically and aesthetically contraindicated in my case. Of course, Sidle charge my insurance extra tens of thousands dollars. Sidle’s true qualification is taking a healthy normal nose and its convertion into nonfunctional pinocchio nose with respiratory distress.

A joke rather than a surgeon

I don't know where to begin but it all started when Dr Sidle amputated one third of my nose during a regular rhinoplasty procedure that was supposed to be only a minor cosmetic adjustment. So yes, Dr Sidle cut out 30% of all tissues in my nose, with some functional nose parts getting reduced by whopping 50%. This "doctor" seems to truly believe that his patients need amputations, overresections and total disability. Of course, Dr Sidle did not tell me as a patient anything about his upcoming amputation procedures on my vital body parts. Otherwise, I would have run away right in my surgical patient gown before the surgery started. The Nuremberg Code of 1947 prohibits forced experimentation on living human beings, following the horrors of the Nazi regime atrocities on living beings. Yet, that's exactly what I've experienced from Dr Sidle. I found out later that Dr. Sidle invariably pushes functional "septo-rhinoplasties" on his patients, meaning he or his ghost surgeons WILL touch your… normally functioning elements. And that was my horrible experience with Dr Sidle, a Jewish doctor who practices WWII-era experiments on living human beings. It was quite shocking to see this behavior on the US soil.