I have had several consultations for a facelift with differing opinions.
It has left me very confused.
Any suggestions?
I have 8 years of stress and grief written all over my face after caretaking my husband
who just passed away from cancer.
I cannot afford the $20,000+ the plastic surgeon.
I am most comfortable with charges.
What would be the most effective and long lasting type of procedure for me?
I have heard everything from limited undermining with fat grafting, extended SMAS, myopexy
- which I thought was an integral part of the tightening and repositioning of muscle
during a facelift, upper and lower blephs, brow lift.
Thank you for your question!
You’ve submitted a question that certainly makes a lot of sense as to why you are so
confused.
You have gone through a tremendous stressful period of your life and you shared with us
in this question about taking of your husband before passing away and that you are now confused
about which way to go.
You stated in your question that you’re comfortable with a particular cosmetic surgeon.
However, you can’t afford 20,000 dollar plus price for the surgeon.
And so you’ve gone for addition opinions and you’ve gotten all kinds of terminology
including fat grafting and other things that are being recommended and now you’re looking
to find a solution that is right for you.
Well, first of all, from the photos you submitted, what appears to be the concern that you are
trying to address is the relative sagging and descent of the cheek and the loss of the
definition of the jawline as well as the skin under the neck.
I think that seems to be where you’re focused on.
And so, in terms of a solution that is right for you, you can go get lots and lots of opinions
but I think a lot of those opinions are going to be shaped by budget you are prepared to
invest in.
As a specialist in facial aging and as a cosmetic oculofacial plastic surgeon for over 20 years
and dealing with many situations like yourself, who have gone through so many stresses and
they just want to feel better and they just want to feel good when they look at the mirror,
I have to say that one of the unfortunately bad decisions that happen is when someone
decides based on budget to make a choice on which doctor they go to.
There are hard truths about cosmetic surgery and one hard truth is there are a lot of costs
to delivering care in cosmetic surgeon.
Surgeon’s fee, anesthesia, facilities costs do add up and that’s just the reality.
And whenever someone offers you a lower price solution for something that another doctor
is offering at a higher price, the question you should always ask is why?
Why are they offering you something that is so much lower than a colleague who is offering
it at a higher price?
And it’s always to believe that the stereotype of cosmetic surgeons as having high lifestyles
and charging a lot of money but there are some very hard costs that ultimately put a
cosmetic surgeon in a position to either charge a certain level to do high level of quality
work or charge considerably less and try to do volume.
From my perspective and my experience for over 20 years, I find that any doctor or surgeon
who does volume work rarely does high quality work.
They do good enough quality work.
And why is that?
Because we are all human and the artistry of cosmetic surgery requires focus and time.
So in the same time it takes me to do upper and lower eyelids, face and neck lift, cheek
and chin implants, that kind of surgery, if I have to do four of those, then you can imagine
that it’s going to be a very different experience for the 4th patient as will be the 1st patient.
And when you have that kind of pressure, doctors and kind of surgeon will confess that it’s
very difficult to be factory worker and do high quality consistently.
So in my practice, we actually are more about the quality and the boutique style and trying
to perform exceptional procedures for each patient.
So I think that your challenge is that if you like this doctor and you feel comfortable,
then this doctor may be able to counsel you on some less expensive options as long as
you are willing to do something that will may be less expensive but be satisfying for
the major concerns that you have.
But I would caution you not go with price.
There are many companies that have been proliferating by trying to tap into the very lucrative market
of cosmetic surgery that have been trying to do high volume and you’ll recognize them
from infomercials and very convincing marketing messages but when you learn about what’s
behind that thin veil of gloss, that the quality is just not there.
And so, I would say to figure out a way to invest the right money with the doctor you
trust and you’re going to get the results you want but avoid doing a shortcut procedure
that’s going to be like less expensive.
We see patients who come from all over the world who have these shortcut procedures and
in the end, if you don’t have a beautiful crisp jawline, a nice smooth neck then you’re
not going to be happy.
So I want to suggest to you that you don’t do anything in haste and that you think through
your process of what your priorities are and of course, look at your budget and you may
just want to defer the procedure until you can afford it so you can get it done the right
way.
Unfortunately, when people have cheap cosmetic surgery and they get bad results, they end
up multiple times the cost if they can afford it to correct the procedures they had that
did not turn out the way they hoped.
Unfortunately, the reality of life is that you never get something cheap that’s equal
in value in something’s that expensive.
That’s unfortunately rationalization myth that is practiced in terms of the predatory
behavior of companies or entities that try to take advantage of people’s desire to
look but don’t have the financial means to invest in quality.
So I think that, once again, go back to the plastic surgeon or cosmetic surgeon whom you
like discuss your issues and your concerns.
There may be some flexibility for the doctors perspective and at the same time, develop
that relationship so you can actually start in your healing process for your long stressful
period.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!