About 3 million Americans get emergency care for facial injuries each year, and while most are minor, some are life changing. For Christine Merrick, a freak dog bite took the tip of her nose and sent her straight into complex nasal reconstruction, multiple surgeries, forehead flaps, and cartilage grafts, all to rebuild not just her face but her self-confidence. Success rates for this type of surgery are high, around 90 to 95 percent, but the journey is anything but easy.

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions and graphic images of the injury.

From a very young age, my mother put great emphasis on my looks. I started dance school as a kid and took voice lessons. By middle school, I’d fallen in love with musical theater and was convinced I’d be an actress when I grew up. I even la

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