I went to the AN symposium in '93 when it was in Chicago, one year after my surgery. I am able to wear contact lenses and have little facial paralysis, so I am very lucky with my surgical outcome. I can't believe people defend the surgical route as the only way to go. In fact, I think the non-surgical options should be checked out first. I believe AN removal will be done exclusively by laser, radiation, Gamma knife in about 5 to 10 more years.
Most people hate change.
A comparison to this would be when the compact disc was first introduced on the market in the early 80's. The record purists said it would never catch on because people had too much invested in vinyl and that CD's could not replicate the high end frequencies as well as vinyl could.