There are many factors that go into why any patient opts to undergo cosmetic plastic surgery. A perceived and persistent problem, hope for the best result, cost, reputation of the plastic surgeon, timing in their life, recovery opportunity, significance of the involved risks and a host of more minor considerations all pours into a big bowl to create the ingredients for a decision to undergo surgery. One of the important balances that every patient weighs heavily in this decision is what is to be gained at what cost? While everyone wants the lowest cost for their surgery, they also want the most gain that they can.
While patients understandably perceive their surgery hoping that the most ideal result is achieved, that is not actually how it should be viewed at that side of the benefits vs cost ratio. I will illustrate this point by a patient that I just saw today. A young man came in after losing 150 lbs of weight. While this helped much of his overall body the one area that it did not improve was the amount of penile show that he had. Buried within a suprapubic mound of fat was some of his penile shaft, showing a length of 4 1/2 inches when fully erect. What he wanted was suprapubic mound liposuction to gain more visible penile length. His goal was to add an additional 1 1/2 inches by the fat reduction. My feeling was that the most assured result was a 1/2 inch in increased penile show, maybe more would happen but this was what I felt was the less likely amount of improvement that would be seen. With a round figure of $5,000 to do the procedure he felt that was not enough improvement to justify the cost. Out of curiousity I asked him if the cost was only $500 would it be worth it and he said yes. I also asked him if it was assured that he would absolutely gain 1 1/2 or even 2 inches would he pay $10,000…and he said absolutely yes.
Cosmetic plastic surgery is unique because of this delicate and variable benefit vs cost consideration. Much disappointment and unhappiness can result when one’s preoperative expectations of the result are not met.
‘One Should Choose To Undergo Elective Plastic Surgery Based OnThe Least Improvement That One Feels Justifies The Cost’
Dr. Barry Eppley