5 Questions You Need to Ask Your Plastic Surgeon

Sure, everybody wants to know “How long is recovery?” and “Will it hurt?”, but if you’re going to surrender your body and countless thousands of dollars to a complete stranger, perhaps a little bit more caution is in order.

For every plastic surgery horror story in the media, there are countless surgeons doing beautiful work on patients around the globe. The problem is, telling these surgeons apart is often very difficult, especially in the run-of-the-mill 30 minute chats typical of any surgical consultation.

We’re not saying you should treat every doctor like the enemy - they’re not, and trust is key to any doctor/patient relationship - but asking these five hard-hitting questions of your plastic surgeon will help you to think outside of the box and gain new perspectives on buying your dream body.

These are five questions you never thought you’d ask - but you need to!

5 - “Do you mind if I go somewhere else for a consultation?”
Once you’ve been to a few consultations, you will begin to see the vast difference between surgeons, not only in how they practice but in their general bedside manner and personality. Not only that, but surgeons should be confident in their abilities and the advice that they’re offering - to the point that they will applaud you for getting multiple opinions from their peers.

At the end of every consultation, try slipping in, “This sounds great but would it be all right if I have a consultation with someone else before signing a contract?” If the doctor jumps into a brand new sales pitch (or, even worse, brings in his own salespeople), run - don’t walk - to your next consultation!

4 - “What procedure do you do the best?”
Capitalism at its best: nearly all surgeons do the “popular” surgeries like tummy tucks, breast implants, rhinoplasty, liposuction, and facelifts, and yet these procedures couldn’t be more different, technically or aesthetically! So ask your surgeon what his/her speciality is; s/he should have a solid answer that may include post-doc training in a particular discipline, or the number of specific surgeries s/he has performed.

When it comes down to it, almost all surgeons have a long list of surgeries they perform, but the list of surgical specialities is much shorter.

While the number of surgeries a doctor has performed are important, this isn’t the be-all, end-all; in fact, too many surgeries is a bad thing (if you have a 20-something doc in front of you who has done 1,000 nose jobs, you ought to wonder how much care and attention to detail has gone into each one). But by getting the numbers, the specifics, and their specialities upfront you will be more informed about picking the right surgeon for YOUR needs.

3 - “Can I have your home phone number?”
Most surgeons are financially comfortable; why not go for it?

But in reality, this question will gauge the post-op availability of your surgeon and his/her staff. Most surgeons won’t give you their home or mobile number, but they should have a 24/7 emergency phone number that will put you in DIRECT contact with a nurse or doctor on call. You hope you’ll never need to use this number, but if your breasts start leaking puss at 3 a.m., you’ll be glad to have it.

2 - “Can you show me the ugly before-and-after photos?”
The invention of digital cameras and the rampant availability of photo manipulation programs like Photoshop have brought untold amounts of business to less-than-talented plastic surgeons; we can all guess that much. Doctored photos abound, and some of them are ridiculously easy to spot: if the “after” photo features a smiling, tan, made-up patient with studio-quality lighting, exercise due caution from the outset. But that’s not what we’re after here.

Even the best surgeons have flubbed surgeries or, perhaps more importantly, have done work on fantastically unattractive patients. Why does this matter? Because making the sale is about selling people on the best case scenario, and the worst patients will serve to lower your expectations.

So if your surgeon talks about which models s/he’s worked on or if s/he is showing you photographs of perfect faces and pert young bodies, ask to see the rest of them (they should have photos of every patient). Then, find someone who looks like you do - BEFORE their surgery - and see what results they came out with. If their nearly-A breasts look like veiny water balloons after getting DD implants, chances are that yours will too, and then you can ask your surgeon about this and get some more practical advice.

1 - “What will happen if I’m unhappy with the results?”
In a surgical consultation (and any situation where a customer is being sold something - even new breasts!), nobody wants to talk about anything negative. It’s just too easy to chat about how great you’re going to look once you’ve had work done, or what your ideal clothing size will be post-op. So, just as a well-trained car salesman won’t tell you the in’s and out’s of how great their mechanics are at fixing blown up engines, most plastic surgeons will not mention unfavourable results until you bring it up.

But this is perhaps the most important question of all, because the answers can range from: “You’ll get free revisions until you’re satisfied” to “Tough luck, chica.” Obviously one would hope the answers would be better formed, but getting your doctor to say them out loud - or, even better, put them in writing, in your contract - is exactly what you need to do, and you need to be completely satisfied with their answer (”I don’t make mistakes” is not an acceptable answer).

Cosmetic surgery may be about ideals and dream bodies, but this is the most essential question to ask if you want to avoid becoming the next media-hyped plastic surgery horror story.