Cosmetic Surgery or Non-Surgical Treatment? 4 Considerations
The world of cosmetic procedures has grown increasingly broad as cosmetic surgeons and other practitioners continue to add new options to their lists of available procedures. In addition to the traditional forms of plastic surgery, you can now choose from various non-surgical techniques that promise to deliver a whole new look.
Both surgical and non-surgical treatments can prove highly effective at producing different kinds of aesthetic improvements. In some cases, you may even find little to choose between these two basic approaches, which only makes the choice more difficult. Consider how the following four points might apply to your situation.
1. What Will Your Overall Health Permit?
First and foremost, you must take your overall health into account when trying to select a cosmetic treatment approach. Some underlying conditions can make cosmetic surgery inadvisable. If you have diabetes, hypertension, depression, heart disease, or a bleeding disorder, discuss these issues with your plastic surgeon.
Non-surgical cosmetic treatments may come with their own contraindications. For example, some dermal fillers can contain ingredients that trigger allergic responses. If you don’t know whether you have any allergies to the substances involved in a procedure, get tested just to make sure.
A smoking habit can make both surgical and non-surgical approaches less than successful. People who smoke often struggle with wound healing, resulting in longer recovery times from either type of care. Smokers also tend to lose elasticity in their skin, which may hurt their ability to enjoy long-lasting results from their treatment.
2. How Big a Change Do You Want to Make?
Some physical changes require more extensive work than others, in which case cosmetic surgery may have more to offer than non-surgical treatment. Any change that involves changing your breast size, altering the shape of your features, or removing large amounts of sagging skin will usually call for surgical methods.
Even so, the smaller changes produced by non-surgical treatments can make a bigger impact on your overall look than you might assume. For example, Botox injections that relax your brow muscles can make you look both younger and happier, while collagen injections can make light to moderate wrinkles seem to disappear.
3. How Long Do You Expect the Treatment to Last?
Surgical treatments produce results that could enhance your looks for years to come, even if natural aging and other processes eventually override the changes made. By contrast, non-surgical cosmetic treatments may vary widely in how they provide results before you have to have the treatments repeated.
Collagen injections to tighten and fill out specific parts of the face can last up to five years, while injections of hyaluronic acid or calcium hydroxylapatite may lose their effectiveness after a matter of months. On the plus side, you can repeat any of these injections relatively quickly and easily as outpatient treatments.
4. What Kind of Recovery Period Can You Handle?
Almost every form of cosmetic treatment involves some degree of recovery time. Even surface-level skin peels and minimally invasive filler injections can produce temporary redness and swelling. Surgical procedures such as face-lifts can keep you away from your normal routine for weeks.
If you can’t take sick leave or vacation time off from work, and you can get the results you want without undergoing a major procedure, choose non-surgical treatment. If your particular challenge requires cosmetic surgery, ask your surgeon about the availability of minimally invasive options such as laser or endoscopic surgery.
If you don’t know for sure whether you’d benefit more from cosmetic surgery or non-surgical techniques, schedule an appointment at Jaibaji Plastic Surgery. We can discuss your specific needs, goals, and concerns as the first step toward recommending and administering the ideal solution. Contact our office today.