One of the more interesting observations in plastic surgery is the change in patient’s expectations before and then after a plastic surgery procedure. Often it occurs in the most unlikely of patients.
What I am referring to is how some patients, who before surgery state that they would find any improvement in their problem acceptable, become after surgery much more critical. In plastic surgery we have long recognized that patients will very small problems are quite intolerant of less than a perfect result. This we know and quite frankly we accept this issue if we choose to operate on these type of patients. In more major problems, such as missing a breast from cancer or total body contouring after massive weight loss for example, less than perfect results are usually quite tolerated given the severity of the initial problem.
This being said, I have observed that some patients with major problems can get quite picky or critical of the result. This is a phenomenon of what I call patients ‘changing their targets’. In these patients, once one level of result is obtained, they then forget from whence they came. And their standards then became higher or, from a plastic surgeons perspective, they get much pickier. Minor issues that did not bother them before surgery now become more significant issues. You might consider this phenomenon ‘accomplishment feedback’, to put a positive spin on it.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana