Because plastic surgery can cause permanent and drastic changes to your outward appearance, it’s important to realize how these changes affect you on the inside. So, before making an appointment to visit a plastic surgeon, think carefully about the motivations that made you want to change your appearance.
There are many physical characteristics that can be successfully changed by plastic surgery, but others cannot. In order to be a suitable candidate for plastic surgery, you must:
• Set realistic expectations about what can be achieved.
• Understand the medical risks, the physical effects that occur during recovery, how surgery will affect you personally and professionally, the lifestyle changes that may accompany the recovery period, and the necessary expenses.
• Controlling chronic medical conditions.
• You must not have a history of smoking, or you must abstain from smoking and nicotine products, including chewing tobacco, nicotine patches, gum, and lozenges, for a period ranging between four and six weeks after surgery.
• In some operations, it is necessary to maintain weight stability for a period ranging between six and 12 months.
All surgeries, including cosmetic procedures, involve risks. If your BMI is 30 or higher (evidence of obesity) or if you have diabetes, you may be at greater risk of developing complications such as blood clots in the legs or lungs. Smoking also increases risks and interferes with the recovery process.
You will meet with your surgeon to discuss these and other risks related to your health history.
Possible complications of any surgical procedure include:
• Complications related to anesthesia, including pneumonia, blood clots, and, in rare cases, death.
• Infection at the wound site, which may lead to worse scarring, and may require additional surgery.
• Fluid accumulation under the skin.
• Minor bleeding that may require another surgical procedure, or severe bleeding that requires a blood transfusion.
• Abnormal scarring due to cracked skin.
• Wound detachment, which sometimes requires additional surgical procedures.
• Feeling of numbness and numbness resulting from nerve damage, and this feeling may be permanent.
