Mt Vernon - Cosmetic Surgeons

The UK’s economy may just have come out of the recession but let’s face it – we’re still in the midst of a financial hardship. You still want to look good, however, so here are some tips to shrink your plastic surgery bill.

INSURANCE

Elective procedures to improve your appearance are rarely covered by medical insurance but procedures for reconstructive purposes after an accident or disfiguring disease are almost always covered. It’s worth asking about. Insurance companies might be swayed to cover part of the cost if you can prove medical necessity — say, breathing problems as cause for nose surgery, or a breast reduction to alleviate back pain.

FLEXIBILITY

If you can be flexible with the timing of your procedure, ask to be put on the doctor’s on-call list to grab the spot of a last-minute cancellation.

USE CASH

This way you can avoid the credit card fees added by both the surgeons AND the card companies (you’ll also avoid their monthly interest this way too).

DON’T CUT CORNERS

The lowest price isn’t the best indicator of quality when it comes to picking a doctor or a procedure. Make sure the surgeon you pick is qualified and has a good reputation. Cheap surgery could cost you more in the long run if you need to have corrective operations.

More and more Britons are going under the knife as a short-cut to losing weight and needing more fat removed than two years ago, reveals The Guardian newspaper.

Transform, the country’s biggest cosmetic surgery group, carried out liposuction on 2,016 people last year, up from 1,436 operations in 2008 and well above the 542 it did in 2000. During the same period the average amount of fat taken out rose from 687ml in 2000 to 1.05 litres last year.

The 2,000 litres of body fat removed in 2009 are the equivalent of what a typical chip shop uses in a year to fry its fish and chips, the newspaper reported.

89% of liposuction patients were women. They were most likely to come from Yorkshire (22%), the North West (20%) and North East (18%) with just 3% coming from the South East.

“The amount of fat we are removing through liposuction per patient is on the increase,” said Dr Abel Mounir. “As a nation we are becoming heavier, people are having to work harder to shift weight and liposuction is becoming more popular for those wishing to lose stubborn pockets of fat.”

A report on BBC One’s The One Show this week investigated claims that some big name cosmetic surgery groups are offering date-limited promotions and two-for-one offers on surgical procedures.

A member of the public contacted the show and claimed she had been pressurised into having a ‘package’ of two procedures after going into a clinic for a consultation about a tummy tuck.

A reporter from the show went undercover to a number of clinics throughout Manchester and discovered that all but one of the clinics visited offered discounts on multiple procedures. Some told the reporter that if she had the operation before a certain date a discount would apply and some demanded payment there and then.

The show spoke to Douglas McGeorge, consultant plastic surgeon and former BAAPS president, who echoed concerns that such offers encourage consumers to make a snap decision about surgery. Always visit a reputable surgeon, take your time over decisions and ask others who have had surgery what their experiences were.

To see the full report visit www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow

In the US dozens of plastic surgeons offer virtual consultations on their own web sites. Most plastic surgeons say it’s fine to send an e-mail message with general information about a range of procedures to a patient, but the practice of offering a diagnosis without ever having met a patient can be problematic. Critics also say that patients’ poor-quality pictures don’t provide doctors with adequate information. And patients seldom realize that no virtual recommendation is solid without an office consultation and medical clearance.

Advocates of virtual consultations suggest that they are convenient and that receiving multiple opinions online benefits a prospective patient. Out-of-town patients are the main users of these ‘virtual consultations’, in which a doctor may offer an opinion in a video chat, an e-mail exchange or a phone conversation. Convenience is the main draw, but a few surgeons also cited the anonymity of the situation, which is attractive to shy patients.

Experts like Dr. Loren S. Schechter, the chairman of the patient safety committee for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, worry about patients getting a hard sell. Consultations “shouldn’t be about selling the surgery,” he said.

No matter how ‘easy’ a procedure appears, plastic surgery is not for DIY.

It’s thought that the economic downturn has led to the rise in the amount of do-it-yourself injectable filler kits that are being bought from the internet. Doctors say self-injectable facial fillers are bad for your health and those who want the effects of facial fillers should seek out qualified doctors.

Using these kits at home can lead to unwanted lumpiness in the face, or even an infection. And through these cheap cosmetic shortcuts a person can very easily cause damage that costs them more in the long run to rectify.

Seek out a board-certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist to ensure that the material being injected is authentic, that the proper amount is being injected and that fillers are injected in the proper location to avoid unwanted consequences.