When you are considering cosmetic surgery, regardless of all the other factors such as aims and expectations of surgery, risks, recovery time, and where the surgery is done, ultimately the cost of such surgery needs be considered.
The costs of surgery which you pay are referred to as fees not as prices by surgeons. What you pay is a total of all the costs, of which the surgeon’s fee makes up only part. The other costs are surgery facility (operating room etc) costs, and the fees charged by the anaesthesiology doctor who will be sedating you or putting you to sleep and waking you, monitoring your heart and other vital functions, as well as administering pain relievers and other medications in the immediate post operative period.
What you pay will vary from surgeon to surgeon, from procedure to procedure, and from facility to facility.
Breast augmentation is different depending on what type of implants are used, and breast augmentation is different from augmentation with breast lift. Both may be referred to as breast enhancement but the time involved and therefore the costs are quite different.
When I sit assessing a facelift patient or a rhinoplasty patient I need to decide what I will need to do in order to deliver the kind of result both the patient and I are expecting.
This is quite different from one patient to another and is the reason why we read “treatment must be individualized” in one article after another in our plastic surgery journal articles written by experienced surgeons. There is no “cookie-cutter” approach. One patient may have very loose skin with heavy jowls, another severe neck muscle band prominence, another excessive deposits of fat under the chin. The time involved depends on what series of maneuvers need to be put together to make up that patient’s “facelift”.
The “menu” may involve :
- Fat harvest by liposuction from the abdomen or elsewhere
- Fat injections to lips, cheek folds, cheek bone, eye region etc
- Liposuction or surgical removal of fat from the neck and chin
- Varying incisions from the temple around the ear and into the skin behind the ear, possible incision under the chin
- Skin and deep layer freeing and tightening
- Muscle partial division and tightening
In addition we may also do browlift in one of a variety of ways, eyelids in one of a variety of ways, lip augmentation in one of a variety of ways, chin augmentation, earlobe reduction, or other variations and additions
For this reason my facial rejuvenation fees vary considerably more than in some other procedures. We try not to “up-sell” but often will suggest what makes up the” big picture” so that the patient can decide for himself or herself.
Because this surgery is for cosmetic purposes, it is paid for by you, the consumer, the patient, and is not an insurance benefit. While until recently it could be declared as a medical expense and claimed against your income taxes, this is no longer possible. In British Columbia, where I practice, the new Harmonized Sales Tax also now applies to cosmetic surgery, whereas formerly only the Goods and Services Tax applied.
Sometimes patients are shocked by the total cost of surgery when they finally inquire, after thinking about having some treatment for considerable time. When compared to the cost of a Botox® injection and a moderate injectable filler, the cost may seem huge. Similarly, there are “mini” procedures advocated by some and laser treatments which may seem like a bargain by comparison.
However this is not a reasonable comparison. While lesser treatments may have times when they are appropriate and may give some satisfying results, they aren’t comparable. No filler and Botox® combinations can imitate the change nor the long term benefits of a facelift when it is appropriate. Nor is a Botox® treatment a substitute for a well done endo-brow lift with division or removal of some of the very muscles which are paralyzed temporarily by Botox®.
There are patients who would never want to have surgery. They may in error think surgery is too “drastic”, too risky or for reasons of simply being afraid of “going under the knife” cannot accept a surgical treatment as being for them. There is nothing “wrong” with this attitude and they are perfect patients for ongoing treatment with injectables. I have patients in my practice who have been visiting my injections nurse for years and never contemplate moving on to surgery.
There are also patients with the opposite attitude. For them, spending money every six months for injectables and having ongoing treatment is exactly what they do not want. They look at five years worth of injections and would rather have surgery and move on with their lives. For them, surgery is a better “investment” in themselves.
We try to offer appropriate treatments for both.
