The costs of cosmetic surgery can be the biggest barrier to achieving your goals. Fees charged by different practices will vary widely, and not always for reasons of quality.  Even within a practice, the fee for a specific procedure will vary between patients.  Complexity and scale of procedures can vary widely between patients Patient characteristics (e.g. health problems requiring hospital surgery) may influence the costs. How to lower the costs of your surgery? If procedures can be safely combined (e.g. breast and abdominal), there is often a savings of $1-2,000 because you are only paying for one trip to the operating room. A patient who has had previous surgery in…

Looking your best helps you to feel your best. It also helps you to make the most of your opportunities both socially and at work. Diet, exercise, and ‘choosing the right parents’ are important contributors to achieving good health and appearance, and many people also include cosmetic surgery in their formula for success. The increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery has provoked some criticism, and it’s worth reflecting on whether this is justified. Are efforts to improve one’s appearance a sign of insecurity or shallow character? When you dress in the morning or put on deodorant, you are doing so in part to be appealing (or at least inoffensive!) to others.…

We have always referred to people who seek our services as ‘patients’, but a recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has reminded us that not everyone accepts this as preferable to ‘clients’. The term client reflects the power and autonomy of a healthy person who pays for a service, and if it is your preference, we invite you to be our client! From our perspective though, you will always be a patient, as our advice and treatment must always reflect the responsibilities we accept by being your doctor. We need to be confident that you have a problem that is significant enough to warrant the expense, discomfort, inconvenience,…

There are several aspects of healing that can be compromised by exercise. 1. In the first 10 days after surgery, there is a risk of pulling open a blood vessel and getting bleeding into the wound. For this reason, we encourage limited exertion and movement in the surgical area after any surgery. 2. The first three weeks after surgery are critical to the skin/fat layer reattaching to the fascia/muscle layer. If the two layers don’t reconnect, there can be a permanent space that will fill with fluid (Seroma). We recommend use of an abdominal binder as a splint to remind our patients to avoid movement across the abdomen for the…

There are many reasons that patients travel to seek out surgery- lower expense, greater expertise, and privacy are common and legitimate advantages often stated by patients.   These advantages must be balanced against the potential disadvantages of travelling for surgery. Travel carries the risk of deep vein thrombosis (clots forming in legs a.k.a DVT) and embolism to the lungs (PE).  There is increased risk of  DVT/PE with surgery in general, and this is multiplied if you are stuck stationary in a plane or car for hours.  Your surgeon should give you advice on precautions to take on both your trip to and from surgery to minimize this risk. Travel can…