Plastic surgery

Plastic surgery is a highly specialized area of medicine for body contouring, facial feature modification, and skin treatment. Plastic surgery involves a spectrum of different components, including cranio-facial surgery (e.g. cleft lip or palate), burn surgery, hand/microsurgery, maxillo-facial trauma, general and breast reconstructive surgery, and cosmetic surgery (facelift, tummy tuck, liposuction, etc.). This section covers important plastic surgery tips and information sources.

Plastic surgery tips by cosmetic surgeons

Are you emotionally ready for plastic surgery?

The way to truly decide whether or not to "have something done" is to get the best information available from a source with experience and appropriate credentials, whom you trust with your well-being. That information includes a thorough understanding of all options available (both surgical and non-surgical), and it should be provided by someone that understands your aesthetic sensibility and goals (source: Michael Law, MD). See more >>

What is a plastic surgeon?

In order for a physician to be a plastic surgeon, one must complete an approved Residency training program in Plastic Surgery. Because the field of plastic surgery is so broad and extensive, the training required to become a plastic surgeon is between 6-8 years after medical school (source: Christopher Chung, MD). See more >>

Plastic surgery before and after

The best situation occurs when a prospective patient sits down with a plastic surgeon and runs through before and after photos (un-retouched or digitally altered) of that surgeon's own patients. The subtleties of each photograph can only be explained in person and are often missed on web sites. Before and after plastic surgery photos are an excellent way of examining what the skills of the surgeon are and what they think looks good (source: Richard Rand, MD). See more >>

Also see: Thousands of before and after photos posted by doctors and patients

Financing plastic surgery

There are many financing options for plastic surgery available. However, please make sure that you can afford the surgery/payments. Just because someone will give you credit, you should still make sure that it is reasonable for your budget. I often tell patients to make sure that they have funds available for twice the cost of the surgery (source: David Shafer, MD). See more >>

Plastic surgery gone bad

Plastic surgery can have a bad outcome for many reasons. Adverse effects can happen to anyone, regardless of the surgery or doctor. Things like infections, drug reactions, implant rejections or skin necrosis (wound healing problems) can happen to anyone. Adverse effects can happen because of poor patient selection. The main reason patients love to complain is poor outcomes as a result a physicians treatment (source: Robert Freund, MD). See more >>

Have other plastic surgery questions? See answers by board-certified plastic surgeons