How Long Does It Take To Have Cosmetic Surgery?

Finding the right cosmetic surgeon takes a lot of time. You are looking for someone who will be able to make you look and feel better, and so you want to get the best person who will do the job well and to a high standard.

If you rush your search for a cosmetic surgeon, you may go into your plastic surgery procedure completely unprepared and at the hands of an inexperienced surgeon who could potentially make disastrous changes to your body.

One of the most common surgical procedures that gives bad results due to inexperienced surgeons is facelift surgery. Get a bad facelift, and you could end up looking strange for the rest of your life which subsequently will have a negative impact on your level of self esteem.

For example, when a facelift goes wrong your eyebrows could be raised too much making you look like you are permanently surprised all the time.

A bad facelift can also leave the skin on your face feeling overly tight and make it difficult for you to move your face properly. In severe cases, this can interfere with your ability to open and close your eyes, mouth or perform normal facial expressions.

Furthermore, a facelift could even change the look of your whole face making you almost unrecognizable to those who know you. Mickey Rourke’s plastic surgery provides a good example of just how radical such a change can be.

Of course, you can get a bad cosmetic surgery result with any type of procedure. Some other examples of what could possibly go wrong in the hands of a bad plastic surgeon are breathing abnormalities after rhinoplasty, “fish lips” after having lip implants, breast asymmetry after breast lift surgery and uneven skin after liposuction surgery that did not remove fat evenly from underneath the skin.

So as you can see, when plastic surgery goes wrong it can really go wrong, and you will have to suffer the consequences and potentially face a life of permanent disfigurement.

This is why it is so important for you take your time and find the right cosmetic surgeon, as by doing so, you will be rewarded with a younger looking appearance and a boost to your level of self confidence whilst greatly minimising the risks of something going wrong.

Why Do People Rush Their Plastic Surgery Decisions?

Everyone wants to find the best cosmetic surgeon for their procedure, but they also want to have cosmetic surgery done within a certain period of time so that it fits in with their lifestyle and the way that they are currently feeling about themselves.

For example, once a person sets their mind on having plastic surgery, they may become even more self conscious of their body than they already are. This may then cause them to rush the process and just settle with any plastic surgeon who will agree to do their procedure for them.

People who feel very self conscious about their appearance are also likely to feel inadequate with the way that they currently look. This creates a feeling of discomfort within them, which subsequently serves as a strong motivator for wanting plastic surgery as soon as possible.

People who want to change how they look but can only do so within a specific period of time, such as only being able to get time off work during a specific period of the year, will be strongly motivated to get their surgery done within that time frame because failure to do so will most likely mean a lengthy delay until they are able to find some more free time in which they could have their procedure done.

So the main reasons for people rushing their decision really comes down to the way they feel about themselves and when they are actually able to fit their procedure into their schedule.

In both of these cases, the pressure to have plastic surgery can very easily override a persons ability to think logically about a situation and choose the best course of  action that will lead to a successful result.

Consequently, someone in such a frame of mind may very easily be seduced by a bad plastic surgeon who just wants your money rather than caring about whether you will be happy with the end result. And this of course, vastly increases the risks of cosmetic surgery both in terms of the end result you get and your risk of suffering from a post surgery medical complication.

Cosmetic Surgery Finance

Finally, it is worth mentioning another very important potential risk of rushing into plastic surgery, and that is finance.

Plastic surgery procedures can be very expensive, especially if you are having multiple procedures done together such as breast augmentation, rhinoplasty and liposuction.

If you desperately want to have plastic surgery as soon as possible, then unless you already have the money saved up for these procedures you will need to get it from somewhere.

The quickest way to get money for cosmetic surgery is to get a loan or find a plastic surgery finance plan. Either way, you will get the money required, but in the long run, you could end up landing yourself into serious debt due to the accumulating interest on your loan.

In fact, this is actually quite a common scenario amongst hopeful young models and actresses. They have plastic surgery done to make themselves look more beautiful with the hope that their plastic surgery will help their modelling or acting career.

This is a big gamble to take.

If their plastic surgery does end up helping their modelling or acting career, then their plastic surgery will end up paying for itself as a result of the work they get from it. But if it does not help their career, they will be stuck with mounting debt and with very limited options to pay it back.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering whether you can get plastic surgery on insurance, the answer is no.

For any medical procedure that is deemed to be cosmetic in nature, your insurance policy will not cover it or pay for any related costs.

The only exception to this however, is reconstructive plastic surgery. In such cases, your insurance company may pay out if your coverage policy states that it will provide you with such coverage.

This can include the cost of the surgery itself, in addition to related costs such as hospital fees, lab fees, drugs that you are given and doctor fees.

But don’t count on this insurance being applied automatically, as you will only be insured for the things your policy states that it insures you against. If it does not insure you for such medical expenses, you will have to specifically list these on your policy at additional cost.

How Long Does It Take To Find The Right Cosmetic Surgeon?

Lots of people who first become interested in cosmetic surgery wonder how long it will take to find the right cosmetic surgeon or the right cosmetic surgery company so that they can have their procedure done within the shortest and most convenient time period.

Unfortunately, this is something that you can’t really put a time frame on, and if you do, you are likely to rush your decision and may not end up with the best cosmetic surgeon.

If you want to get cosmetic surgery done within a certain amount of time and this is causing you to rush your decision making process, then you may want to consider postponing your surgery until a later date when you have had more time to think about your options.

The best way to start your decision making process is to book a consultation with 3-5 surgeons who you feel could potentially do your procedure and give you a good result.

Seeing multiple surgeons is the best way to find the right surgeon because you will be able to compare each of them to decide who you feel is the best.

Be warned though, that your first choice surgeon will also probably be the first choice of many other people. As a result, don’t be surprised if you find that surgeon has a very long waiting list due to their popularity.

There isn’t really anything that you can do about this except wait or find yourself another surgeon.

If you start looking for another surgeon, then you may want to consider having plastic surgery done overseas, as in countries such as Thailand, a very popular destination for medical tourism, you can get your procedure done relatively quickly as they tend to have very short waiting times.

How Long Does Plastic Surgery Take?

Below you will find 4 of the main factors which will affect how long it takes you to find the right cosmetic surgeon and also when you finally schedule your procedure.

Use these as a guideline so that you can leave enough time to plan out the process from finding a surgeon to having your cosmetic surgery without rushing yourself.

1) Research (+ 1-5 months)

There are two stages to cosmetic surgery research. The first involves selecting potential surgeons and the cosmetic surgery company they work for.

The more time you spend doing this, the more likely you are to find the right cosmetic surgeon who will give you good results. But at the same time, it also means a longer delay before you have your procedure done.

So if you are thinking of having cosmetic surgery some time in the future, spend a little bit of time each day from today doing this research.

The best place to find information on plastic surgery procedures is the Internet. Look for plastic surgery blogs, plastic surgery forums and the website of cosmetic surgery companies.

You can also find a lot of free information on cosmetic surgery right here on this website in the cosmetic surgery section which provides tons of useful help and advice on all the major procedures.

Basically, during your research you want to have a rough idea of what you want to have done. For example, rhinoplasty, breast enlargement, body contouring etc… and the types of surgical techniques that can be used to carry out that procedure along with the associated risks such as scarring or medical complications.

Once you have some information about the procedure itself, the next step is to try and find the most suitable surgeon to do the job.

This is where cosmetic surgery forums can be really useful, as on them you will find people who talk about surgeries they have had in the past, who they had their cosmetic surgeries with and who they recommend you go with or who you stay away from.

But don’t just go with a plastic surgeon if only one person recommends them, rather get a general idea of what surgeons tend to be recommended the most and then start researching those surgeons by looking them up online to find out more information about them.

Once you have done all this, you can then move on to the second stage.

The second stage of research involves meeting your list of potential surgeons face to face during a plastic surgery consultation.

It is only when you meet a surgeon in person will you know if they are right for you or not, and if they are, what results you could realistically expect to get from them. For example, looking at before and after pictures can show you the typical results that surgeon produces.

The following article provides lots of good information on how to choose a good cosmetic surgeon that will help you further with your research during the second stage.

Stage one research can take you anywhere from 1-3 months to educate yourself about the different procedures available and the risks associated with them.

Stage two can take under a month to 2 months depending on when you are able to book a consultation and how many surgeons you are seeing.

2) Availability Of The Plastic Surgeon (+ 3-12 months)

If you are limited as to when you can have your plastic surgery, you may find that despite having found the right surgeon, he can’t operate on you because he isn’t available during the time you require.

In this case you have two options, see if either you or the surgeon can reschedule or go and find another surgeon.

But as was mentioned before, if you want to have your procedure done with a popular and in demand surgeon you should expect them to have a long waiting list and so you should plan your surgery far ahead in advance.

Some surgeons may be able to operate on you in a few months, although some may have a waiting list as long as one year. So it really depends on who you go with.

Also remember, plastic surgery abroad will usually have much shorter waiting times, so if you really are in a rush, that is probably your best option for having surgery done quickly.

In general though, looking at a time frame of 3-12 months is probably what you can expect.

3) Your Schedule (+ ?)

Everyone has a schedule for cosmetic surgery, and this schedule is usually dictated by work or family commitments.

If you can only have your surgery during a certain period of time, then you will need to make it clear to the surgeon exactly when you would like to have it done.

If they can’t accommodate your schedule then you could ask to be put on a waiting list for cancellations, reschedule your procedure or go with a different surgeon. This is why it is always good to have a backup surgeon, just in case your first choice is unavailable to operate on you.

But at the same time you might want to ask yourself whether you are happy having your second choice surgeon operate on you? Or whether you would be better off waiting until your first choice is available.

4) Recovering From Cosmetic Surgery (+ 1-12 months)

Recovery is an extremely important part of plastic surgery, and if you don’t leave enough time to recover, you could suffer from complications or a delay in healing which may require a secondary surgery to correct costing you more time and money.

Since different procedures will have different recovery times, how long it will take you to recover from your procedure is something that only your surgeon can give you an accurate estimate of.

Although, whatever estimate you receive, it is usually best to give yourself a little extra time so that you can make a full recovery just in case something unexpected happens.

For most people, recovery time will mean taking more time off work and after an expensive surgery this can be difficult to do.

For this reason, it is important that you are sure you can afford to take the time off to recover by having some savings which can support you during your recovery period.

If you find that you can’t afford to take the time off to recover fully after surgery, you may want to consider having your cosmetic surgery at a later date when you have some more money saved up.

Overall, with the large majority of cosmetic surgery procedures you can recover from them within 3 months.

You may be told that some procedures can take up to a year to fully recover from, such as a facelift or rhinoplasty, but the majority of healing occurs within the first few months to the extent where you will be able to go out in public without feeling like you haven’t healed from your surgery properly.

How Long?

In terms of how long it takes to have cosmetic surgery that really depends on how much effort you put into researching it beforehand and what type of surgical procedure you have done.

But for a rough estimate, the shortest time you could probably have your procedure done and recovered from is about 5 months, although it could take you as long as 2 years to have and fully recover from some types of plastic surgery.

It should be noted however, that for non surgical procedures such as Botox, laser skin resurfacing or microdermabrasion, it could take as little as 1 month to have your procedure researched, done and recovered from.

Overall, the best advice to follow when it comes to cosmetic surgery is to take your time, do your research and don’t rush into anything that you are unsure about.

Following these simple rules will greatly help you to ensure a positive plastic surgery experience and one that you will look back on with fondness rather than regret when you are older.