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Why Having Realistic Expectations Before Cosmetic Surgery is More Important Now Than Ever Before

With the aim of improving appearance, self-confidence, and esteem, people get cosmetic surgery for numerous personal reasons. Some seek to change a feature they don’t like, emphasize features they love, or restore a youthful look, while others want to look like their favorite celebrity.

In a time where face-modifying apps like FaceTune are rampant, the line between a healthy desire to improve and the dark side of wanting to be and look like someone else is becoming dangerously thin. The latter is quite often an insatiable goal that can be rooted in mental health concerns that should be addressed before modifying one’s appearance.

That’s why in our practice we take precautions to ensure that our patients are of sound mind when making decisions about changes to their appearance.

 

Causes of Unrealistic Cosmetic Surgery Expectations

 

Cosmetic Surgery Will Fix My Life: If you are lonely, anxious, or depressed, and feel that cosmetic surgery is what you need to “fix” your life, it may be best to wait and invest in your mental health first. While improvements to one’s appearance can give them a boost of confidence (we love some lip filler!) feeling that changing your appearance will improve the issues in your life is a sign of unrealistic expectations.

 

You Can Look Like Someone Else: Many of our patients have celebrities whose looks they admire. In fact, we encourage patients to bring photos of their favorite celebrities to their plastic surgery consult. This is so we can discuss which facial features they appreciate in the celebrity and then determine the plan of action to adopt those features to the patient’s unique look. However, our goal is to collaborate on a look that fits the patient’s facial anatomy, not to completely change it. If the patient is determined on looking like a copy of their favorite celebrity, especially when their facial anatomy cannot support it, it is a sign of unrealistic expectations of cosmetic surgery.

 

Pleasing Others: When improving your appearance, it’s important that you are doing it strictly because you want it. If we see that the patient is overly motivated by outside sources, such as their spouses, it is a red flag of unrealistic expectations.

 

What to Consider Before Getting Cosmetic Surgery

 

Check-in with yourself:
Plastic surgery is a long-lasting or even permanent procedure. Ask yourself why you want to make these changes to your appearance. Are they purely motivated by your own desire for improving your appearance? Is anyone influencing your decision? Do you want to look like the best version of yourself or are you looking to take on someone else’s look? Do you have a realistic understanding of the permanence of the procedure and that your facial anatomy is unique to you?

Answering these questions for yourself will help you better understand why you want plastic surgery and if you’re in a healthy state of mind regarding the decision.

 

Check the plastic surgeon’s qualifications and experience:
If you are looking to get facial plastic surgery, it’s highly recommended to complete it with a surgeon who specializes in the face. Dr. Jennifer Levine is a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon with over 10,000 rhinoplasties (nose jobs) alone completed over a 20-year period. She does not perform any cosmetic surgery procedures on the body because her specialty is facial anatomy – a fact her discerning patients appreciate.

Always check that your surgeon’s certifications and licenses are in good standing. Remember, plastic surgery is a major procedure with permanent results!

 

Evaluate the facility:
In addition to checking your doctor’s credentials, ensure that the procedure is carried out in an accredited facility that has all the modern equipment needed for the surgery, recovery and emergencies.

 

Be patient with recovery:
Recovery from surgical procedures takes time. For example, full results from a rhinoplasty will take about 12 months. Be patient and always follow your surgeon’s directions.

 

Want to Estimate Cosmetic Surgery Outcomes?

To further help ensure that our patients have realistic expectations about their results, we use the Vectra H1 3D camera system. It creates a 3D image that Dr. Levine can then modify digitally with specific parameters that closely resemble the surgical alterations she would be making on the patients to give them a good idea of what the final results would look like.

 

Ready? Let’s get started! Schedule your facial plastic surgery consultation today by calling 212-517-9400.