A lot of patients come into a plastic surgeon’s office thinking that the solution to all their problems relies on one specific procedure: “If I could only get my nose to look right, then my face would be perfect”, or “I just need a little Botox to get rid of all my wrinkles”. For some patients, this is true. The majority of patients, however, can get optimal results by undergoing more than one procedure. This is known as combination surgery, and it’s growing more popular all the time.
What is Combination Surgery?
Each individual cosmetic procedure is designed to improve a specific area or part of your body. A rhinoplasty corrects your nose, a blepharoplasty improves your eyes, dermal fillers improve wrinkles, etc. More often than not, however, a patient’s issue involves an entire area of the body, not just one part. For example, a patient may think that she looks too tired and grumpy all the time and wants to improve her appearance with a facelift. This procedure could definitely help, but she could also benefit from getting an eyelift and possibly dermal fillers. A person’s appearance is a combination of all their facial features; why shouldn’t surgery involve fixing a combination of those same features?
Combination surgery allows an individual to improve an entire area of their body by having multiple procedures performed at the same time or in close proximity to one another. A patient can have chin and cheek augmentations with dermal fillers, or a neck lift with a chin implant, or even otoplasty with a rhinoplasty. The number and types of combinations are practically limitless!
Saving Time and Money with Combination Surgery
If you were to have all your procedures done individually, you would cost yourself a lot of time and significantly more money. Each procedure involves spending time in surgery and recovery – think how much that adds up! Plus, your body has to completely heal from one procedure in order for the next one to occur. You spend a much longer time waiting to get your ideal results, especially if your procedures are surgical.
Each individual surgery also costs quite a bit because of all the fees attached to the procedure. By combining your procedures into one surgical session, you only have to pay those fees one time. You’re still paying for each individual procedure itself, but avoiding the extra fees will save you a lot of money in the long run.
Drawbacks to Combination Surgery
Like all surgery, combination surgery has a few drawbacks. You could be increasing the amount of time you spend under anesthesia, which increases your risk of complications. You could also be increasing the total amount of time you need to recover because you’re putting your body through a lot more. Combination surgery can also cause you more pain and discomfort during your recovery, since the goal is to improve an entire area of your body and not one specific part.
However, these drawbacks shouldn’t prevent you from pursuing combination surgery. There are risks and possible complications with any surgery, regardless of whether you have one or five. If you pick a skilled plastic surgeon, they will be more than capable of keeping those risks at a minimum.
How to Determine the Best Procedure Combination for Yourself
Actually, you don’t have to do that – that’s your surgeon’s job! What you can do is some good research to find a plastic surgeon who is skilled in a variety of procedures, specifically for the area of your body that you want to improve. If you have an idea of what you would like to improve about yourself, your surgeon will be able to take that goal and figure out the best way to get you there through a comprehensive surgical plan. Each patient is different and will have specific needs for their own body, so it’s important to find a surgeon capable of addressing those individual needs.
To schedule a combination surgery consultation with Dr. Andres Bustillo, a board-certified, fellowship-trained facial and reconstructive surgeon who has spent the last decade performing a wide variety of surgical and nonsurgical procedures in South Florida, call (305) 663-3380.