The explosion in the number of cosmetic surgery procedures done in the U.S. has created a new demand – revision of unsatisfactory results, either because of unrealistic expectations or due to errors committed by the doctor.
Dr. Peter B. Fodor reports that revision work of procedures done elsewhere now account for fully half of his practice. Dr. Fodor is a board certified plastic surgeon and is a past president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. He has long been an advocate for patient safety. Dr. Fodor says that correcting a previous procedure can be several times more difficult for the surgeon than a primary case, and so cosmetic surgery revision has become a sub-specialty of sorts.
No face-lift can stop time in its tracks, so as aging continues, even a happy patient may choose to have another one years later. But what if your face-lift or tummy tuck never pleased you? Maybe you ended up with more scarring than you bargained for, or your face lift left you with uneven features. Maybe just the general way things turned out aren’t what you had hoped for. Perhaps your first surgeon’s procedure gave you not only a tighter jaw line, but also a flat, wind-swept cheek and a stretched mouth. Or your nose no longer has an unsightly bump, but now is uneven, or worse, unnatural-looking.
The tremendous increase in the number of cosmetic surgery procedures over the past decade or so has created a new phenomenon – thousands of people who have been left unhappy with their results. These days, there’s such a critical mass of plastic surgery patients dissatisfied with their results that some surgeons perform secondary surgeries, or re-dos on a regular basis.
Nose jobs, for instance, are tricky because surgeons can’t control healing or how good the building materials are. Cartilage can be too thick or too flimsy; skin draped over a newly fashioned nose structure might not shrink to the shape the surgeon wants.
Dr. Fodor says that sometimes advertising can create unrealistic expectations. The idea that a procedure can be quick or painless is often marketed to patients. “The patient is always right when it comes to plastic surgery”, says Dr. Fodor. “A heart patient usually doesn’t decide if she wishes to spend less money to have a less-effective procedure. But a cosmetic surgery patient can choose a minimally invasive face-lift instead of a more complete one. If one surgeon won’t give her what she is asking for, another one will, not always ending with the best result.”
In many of the so-called “mini” –face lifts, problems are often under corrected, according to Dr. Fodor. These short-cuts may require little recovery but usually don’t last very long. For more information or a consultation, visit www.drpeterfodor.com or call Dr. Fodor’s office at 310.203.9818.
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Peter Fodor, M.D., F.A.C.S.
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