Safe is a relative term. It’s safer to not have cosmetic surgery. Risk is usually determined by the incidents and the total risk involved. What is an acceptable risk for one person may not be an acceptable risk for another person. All procedures involve risk compare All surgical procedures include the possibility of severe medical complications, including death, though they are highly unusual during routine Procedures. Life is a fatal condition and life involves risk. When patients are overly anxious about surgical complications and risk of surgery, I usually equated to other risk activities like driving a car. The mortality rate of driving a car is approximately one and 10,000 per year. This means that driving a car for a decade has about one and 1000 chance of dying from a car accident. Driving a car for 50 years therefore has a one in 200 rate of fatality. Driving is probably one of the riskiest things we do. The benefit of driving is far greater than the benefit of having breast surgery. I think most plastic surgeons would say that a breast augmentation with a lift, including liposuction is relatively safe. The keyword here is relative. Relative to what? If you’re highly risk adverse, then consider not having cosmetic surgery. The biggest risk with the procedures you’ve described is an aesthetically poor outcome requiring revision surgery and possibly being left disfigured. The outcome of poorly done Liposuction is sometimes permanent and cannot be corrected. Risk can be reduced by collectively selecting the best provider. Finding the right plastic surgeon to work with is also not easy or straightforward. Provider selection is in the end, the most important variable, other than deciding to have the surgery or not. I suggest patients schedule as many consultations as possible to get well informed, improve their ability to vet, plastic surgeons, and maximizing the chance of an overall positive experience. When in doubt, slow down and schedule more consultations. Avoid a virtual consultations whenever possible. Opt for meeting the surgeon who is going to do your procedure in person. Schedule more than one consultations. Good luck, Mats Hagstrom MD