Why Does Cosmetic Surgery Cost So Much?

Cost is a major issue when it comes to cosmetic or plastic surgery, especially in today’s economic climate where people are trying to save money and minimize their outgoing expenses. When deciding to have plastic surgery people therefore naturally want to get their surgical procedure done at the lowest possible cost, but unfortunately, cosmetic surgery is still relatively expensive despite the fact that prices have fallen considerably in the past few decades.

The cost of having cosmetic surgery can be influenced by many different factors, the most obvious being the type of procedure that you want to have done. Invasive surgeries such as rhinoplasty, rhytidectomy (face lift) and breast augmentation for example, are much more expensive than non surgical procedures such as laser skin resurfacing, microdermabrasion or a chemical peel.

Cost can be further influenced by who you have your surgery with, as different cosmetic surgeons can charge very different rates depending upon their reputation and whether they work for a large national or private cosmetic surgery company. Age can also play a significant factor in determining cost, as in general, the older one is the more plastic surgery that they are likely to require in order to reverse the signs of aging by an acceptable amount.

What Does Your Cosmetic Surgery Fee Pay For?

In order to fully appreciate why so much money can be charged for cosmetic surgery, it is first necessary to understand what you are paying for when you have a cosmetic surgical procedure done. Most people tend not to give this much thought, but as you shall soon discover, you pay for much more than just your surgeon’s time when you have cosmetic surgery.

Below you shall find a breakdown of some of the things which make up the bulk of the cost of having cosmetic surgery. It is however, important to note that these individual costs can vary depending on the type of procedure that you are having done and the complexity of that procedure. So not all fees may apply to you.

If you are interested in finding out exactly what your hard-earned cash is being spent on, it is a good idea to speak with your cosmetic surgeon and ask them to break down their costs for you. By doing this, you may in fact discover that you are able to reduce the cost of your surgery, so this can be worth doing from a purely financial point of view rather than just that of general interest.

Cosmetic Surgeon Fees

Just like anyone else in a paid form of employment, a cosmetic surgeon gets paid for the work that they do and so this will make up a large percentage of your overall costs. How much time the operation takes to carry out, the complexity of that operation and the type of surgical technique the surgeon is using, will all influence the fee that a cosmetic surgeon chooses to charge for their service.

This means that you may get quoted different prices from different cosmetic surgeons for the same procedure. For example, a skin only face lift is cheaper than a normal face lift because the procedure is quicker and less complex.

Some surgeon’s fees will include all pre- and post surgery visits rather than charging you for each individual visit, whilst others will charge for each, or the first, consultation meeting(s) that you have with them. Generally, you will find that specialist surgeons or highly regarded surgeons will charge for consultations, whilst general surgeons, those who do many different procedures and do not specialize in any one particular procedure, will offer consultations for free.

You can also expect to pay more for the top cosmetic surgeons purely because they are in demand and so can afford to charge higher fees because they have plenty of people queuing up to have their surgery done with them.

Surgeons who are less well-known, and therefore less in demand, will often charge less money in an attempt to attract more patients. Furthermore, your costs will generally be higher if your surgeon works privately within their own company, and lower if they work for a large national firm.

Operating Room Fees

Regardless of whether you have plastic surgery in a hospital or in a plastic surgery center, you have to pay for using that space. Usually, you will find that hospitals cost the most, so expect to pay more if that is where you are having your cosmetic procedure done.

It also matters if you are having your procedure done in a certified facility or not. A certified facility must meet certain standards such as having expensive monitoring equipment and safety equipment. They also have more personnel and keep expensive emergency drugs on hand should anything go wrong.

An uncertified facility operates at a much lower standard, which generally equates to a less safe environment and a lower standard of patient care, although be it at less personal expense to you.

Recovery

In addition to the operating room fees, you may also have to pay for the time you spend recovering in hospital and the care that you receive during your stay. For most procedures however, such as rhinoplasty or breast augmentation, you may be able to go home almost immediately after your operation as an overnight stay is not usually required.

For other procedures though, such as thigh lift surgery or abdominoplasty, an overnight or longer stay will usually be required and so this will push up the overall price of your surgery.

There may also be additional fees should you require transportation to be provided for you in order to get back home after your surgery, and/or fees for a caregiver or nurse who visits you during your recovery period.

Note: Additional costs may be applied should a complication occur during or after your surgery.

Anesthesia & Drugs

If your procedure requires a trained anesthetist, then you can expect to pay more than if your surgeon or nurse sedates you. Costs will also vary depending on whether you require a general anesthetic or a local anesthetic.

Drug related fees can include any painkillers (analgesics) that you are given to cope with post surgical pain, and antibiotics to prevent an infection from occurring.

Procedure Related Fees

If your procedure requires any implants to be inserted into the body, such as breast implants, facial implants, buttock implants or pectoral implants, then you will have to pay for the cost of the implant that you have chosen.

Lab Fees

Any preoperative tests that you require will have to be paid for. This can include a full blood count (CBC) to test for blood clotting disorders, infections and disease, an electrocardiogram to check for any heart irregularities, a chest X-ray to check the condition of your lungs, chest cavity and airways, a pregnancy test, a urinalysis to check for a urinary tract infection (UTI), high blood pressure and diabetes and a mammogram to check for breast cancer.

Note: You are unlikely to require all of these tests, as the tests that you have will depend on the procedure that you are having done, your age and your current level of health.

Understanding Plastic Surgery Fee Quotes

When you go to your cosmetic surgery consultation, you should be given a quote as to how much your procedure will cost you.

There are however, different types of cosmetic surgery fee quotes that you can get. It is important to understand the difference between these fee quotes so that you will know exactly how much your surgery is going to cost or could cost.

Some of the different types of fee quotes that your surgeon may give you are:

Global Fee Quote

A global fee quote generally includes everything. This means that the price you get is the price you will pay for everything related to your procedure.

It includes all the previously mentioned cosmetic surgery fees such as the surgeon’s fee, operating room charges, anesthesia costs and other charges.

The downside to a global fee quote is that you don’t always get a breakdown of the charges, so you won’t necessarily know how much you are paying for each individual item or service that you will be receiving. If you don’t have a breakdown of costs, it then becomes much harder to try to negotiate the price down.

Standard Fee Estimate

A standard fee estimate will break down the costs of your procedure so that you can get a detailed picture of exactly what you are paying for.

With this type of fee quote, you may even have to make separate payments to the different entities that will be involved with your procedure, and will probably also have to pay separately for your consultation whether or not you decide to go ahead with surgery.

Unspecific Fee Quote

An unspecific fee quote is essentially a price range. You are not told how much your cosmetic surgery will cost you exactly, but rather the price range that it could lie within.

Be careful when you are given a price range, as it is not uncommon for people to end up paying the upper range.

How To Save Money On Your Surgery

Although you will be given a set fee for your procedure, you may be able to negotiate the price down somewhat if you are on a budget and trying to save money. Here are some of the ways that you may be able to get your plastic surgery done cheaper.

1) Have Multiple Procedures Done Together

If you are thinking of having more than one procedure done, such as a breast uplift and lower body lift, then there is a very good chance that you could get a discounted rate by having those procedures done together. This of course, is providing that your surgeon agrees to do both procedures at once, and that you are considered to be fit and healthy enough to withstand the stress of the two operations.

The bulk of your savings will come from paying the preoperative and postoperative fees once, rather than paying them separately for each procedure done at a different time.

2) Manufacturers Discounts

Sometimes product manufacturers offer discounts on their products which practices then pass on to the customer. This is most likely to occur with facial filler products such as collagen or Botox injections.

3) Your Flexibility

Sometimes patients who are scheduled to have cosmetic surgery decide not to go ahead and drop off the waiting list. This may occur for financial reasons, medical reasons or simply because they changed their mind.

If you are willing to step in at short notice, you may be able to negotiate a reduced rate. It is also worth mentioning to your surgeon that you are flexible on dates, as this may allow you to get booked in on a date that will be cheaper than other dates.

4) Go Abroad

Going abroad for cosmetic surgery is something that many people are now doing in order to save themselves money. This however, usually only works out to be cost-effective for very expensive or multiple simultaneous procedures, as you have to take into account the cost of transportation, food and accommodation once you get to your destination.

If you do go overseas for plastic surgery, you also have to be very careful where you go as not all countries may have the same medical standards as your own country. If you suffer a post surgical complication when you return home, the fact that your surgeon is in another country could make it very difficult for you to get your problem fixed and so you may end up having a revision surgery in your home country at great expense.

Prices Of Cosmetic Surgery Procedures

There is no doubt about it, cosmetic surgery is expensive. But if you want to have cosmetic plastic surgery done, then you either need to save up for it or have a well-paying job that can fund it.

Below you will find a list of the different cosmetic surgery procedures and how much each of them costs. These figures should be used as a guide only to gain a rough estimate, as individual prices will vary depending on where you go and are likely to increase each year in line with inflation.

If you can’t afford the cost of the procedure that you want, some cosmetic surgery companies offer interest free financing which allows you to have your procedure done now and pay for it later. This is something that we shall discuss later on in this article.

BOTOX

$200-$400 per area

COLLAGEN/RESTYLANE

$350-$800 per syringe

ARTEFILL

$1,200-$1,600

CHEMICAL PEEL

$800-$4,000

LASER PEEL

$2,000-$6,000

EYELID LIFT

$3,000-$6,500

BROW LIFT

$3,500-$6,200

FACELIFT

$8,000-$13,000

MINI FACELIFT

$6,000-$9,000

S-LIFT

$5,000-$8,000

MIDFACE LIFT

$5,000-$8,000

DEEP PLANE FACELIFT

$8,000-$13,000

CHIN IMPLANT

$2,000-$4,000

FACIAL IMPLANT

$2,000-$4,000

RHINOPLASTY (NOSE JOB)

$4,500-$8,000

SEPTOPLASTY

$4,000-$6,000

TIP RHINOPLASTY

$3,500-$6,000

LIPOSUCTION

$3,000-$6,000

ABDOMINOPLASTY

$5,500-$11,000

BELT LIPECTOMY

$7,000-$13,000

THIGH LIFT

$6,000-$10,000

BUTTOCK LIFT

$6,000-$10,000

LOWER BODY LIFT

$7,000-$13,000

BRACHIOPLASTY

$5,000-$9,000

BACK LIFT

$7,000-$12,000

TOTAL BODY LIFT

$13,000-$22,000

BREAST AUGMENTATION

$4,000-$7,000

BREAST LIFT

$5,000-$8,000

BREAST LIFT & AUGMENTATION

$7,000-$11,000

BREAST REDUCTION

$7,000-$11,000

BREAST REDUCTION BY LIPOSUCTION

$3,500-$6,500

MALE BREAST REDUCTION

$2,500-$4,000

 

Paying For Your Plastic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery can be expensive, but if you want to have it done then you need to come up with the money one way or another. Of course, you can always pay for cosmetic surgery with cash or a with debit card, but not everyone can afford to do this.

If you find yourself in this position and want to have your cosmetic surgery done as soon as possible, then you may be interested in the following alternative payment options that can be used to pay for your surgery.

Get Someone Else To Pay

Getting someone else to pay for your plastic surgery, such as your spouse or a relative, is obviously the best option financially, as it means that you won’t have to pay anything at all. But if you can’t find anyone who is willing to pay for you then unfortunately, you will have to pay, as there is no such thing as free plastic surgery.

Note: If you join the army they may be willing to give you free cosmetic surgery in order to recruit you.

Use Your Insurance

In most cases you will find that your health insurance coverage does not cover cosmetic surgery. It may however, cover the costs of reconstructive surgery. This type of surgery involves correcting an abnormality that prevents you from carrying out normal everyday activities or impairs normal bodily function in some way. The main aim of reconstructive surgery is therefore not cosmetic in nature.

Even though it is a slim chance, it is still worth asking your insurer if they will cover the cost of your cosmetic surgery as some insurance companies will cover these costs under certain circumstances.

Create A Cosmetic Surgery Savings Fund

Unless you are planning on having cosmetic surgery immediately, then you probably have quite some time to wait before you actually have your procedure done. This is a good opportunity to determine how much your surgery will cost, how long before you think you will have your procedure done and then how much you will need to save per month to pay for it.

A good tip when saving money is to have it deducted automatically from your bank account to a savings account as soon as you get paid. This way you will be sure that you are saving enough money, and you won’t have to worry about forgetting to do it.

Another advantage of taking this approach is that because you are saving in advance, you won’t have to worry about getting into debt. You will also leave yourself plenty of time to research your procedure and change your mind if you decide that you no longer want to have surgery to change your appearance.

Prepaying Your Surgeon

If you are worried that you will never be able to save up enough money for plastic surgery because you think that you will spend it, then you may want to consider prepaying your plastic surgeon.

This simply involves paying them in advance until you have paid enough to cover the cost of your surgery. But if you decide to do this, make sure that you are doing it with a reputable cosmetic surgery company so that you know your money will be safe.

Another advantage to using this approach, is that if you are paying in advance you can sometimes set your date for when you will have your procedure done. This will encourage you to save money the money required, as you will know that you are one step closer to having your procedure with every payment that you make.

Use Your Credit Card

Paying for cosmetic surgery with a credit card used to be quite a rare occurrence, but today, more and more people are choosing to pay for their plastic surgery this way. However, if you decide that you want to pay by credit card, then be sure to ask the surgeon if they accept payments by credit card and if they accept your particular type of card as some cards may not be accepted.

Ideally, you want to pay with a credit card that will give you some kind of benefit, such as air miles or cash back. If your credit card doesn’t give you anything in return, consider applying for another card and then pay for your plastic surgery with that.

Note: Some plastic surgery companies may want to charge you extra for using a credit card. But if you state that this is your only option for payment, then you will probably be able to get the fee waived.

Finally, in order to be able to use your credit card to pay for your surgery, you will need to have a large enough limit on your card to cover the cost of the procedure, as otherwise, your card will be declined when you try to make your payment.

It is also worth remembering that you will eventually have to pay back the money which you have borrowed on credit. So if you can’t afford to make your monthly repayments, then avoid using this method as you are likely to get yourself into a large amount of debt due to the high interest rates that credit cards charge.

Use Your Home Equity

If you need a lot of money to pay for an expensive plastic surgery procedure, or multiple procedures, then you may want to consider pulling money out of your home in the form of refinancing or an equity line of credit, as you will generally be able to get much lower rates than you would with credit cards.

If you want to use your home to get some extra cash to pay for plastic surgery with, there are two main strategies that you can use:

Refinance your house: If interest rates are falling, then this is a good strategy to use. You can lower your house payment and will have the ability to frequently draw out cash which you can then use to pay for your surgery.

Equity line of credit: This strategy involves leaving your home loan in place and getting an extra line of credit which is usually set at a low rate of interest. Checks can then be written against the equity of your home.

Note: Using home equity to pay for plastic surgery is potentially a very high risk strategy, and so this is something that you should only consider as a last resort after trying all other alternative payment options.

Plastic Surgery Finance Plans

Cosmetic surgery companies understand that cosmetic surgery costs a lot, and as a result, you will find that many companies will offer you some kind of finance plan or medical loan.

For example, some will offer you a low-interest rate loan, while others may offer you a 0% loan. With the later, you can have your procedure done and you will only have to pay back the amount your procedure actually cost. If interest is involved, then obviously you will end up paying back more than your surgery actually cost.

Note: In order to qualify for any plastic surgery finance plan, you will need to prove that you have a regular source of income and have a good credit rating. If you have a poor credit rating, you may still qualify for a loan but could be charged a higher rate of interest than someone who has a better credit rating.