IS IT A MATTER OF SEASONS?

I was at a restaurant the other day and there were four guys sitting at the table right next to ours.  They were talking about soccer teams, for what seemed like all night!  I was not eavesdropping on their conversation but they were pretty loud. It was unbelievable.  Like nothing else mattered in the world.  We were at the restaurant for about 3 hours enjoying our meal, and the guys were … well, all about football.  The US team did this, and the Brazilian team did that, and what about so and so player playing in the Argentinian team and so forth.

The next day I went to have my nails done and all the TV screens in the room were showing the “Germany-France” game.  And that’s when it hit me!  There is a soccer season, a basketball season, a strawberry-picking season … is there a season for plastic surgeries?

It would seem that there is not, as people have plastic surgeries done throughout the year and wherever you go, whichever party or gathering you go to, there is always someone talking about plastic surgery.  But I could not leave my question unanswered and rest assured with this vagueness.  So I researched it!

And voila! Yes, there is seasonality in plastic surgery.  Not in terms of whether one visits the plastic surgeon or not, but instead it is a matter of which procedures are performed at particular seasons.  It was fascinating and exiting to see that.  I had never thought about it before.

So when is the best time of the year to have a surgery performed? 

Well, it seems that during the spring, and especially between April and June, breast augmentation, body contouring, tummy tuck and liposuction are the procedures of choice.  Reason being that we start thinking about the horrifying time of putting a swimsuit on! And of course when we do go ahead to try the ones from the year before, seeing the extra fat that was not there last year, gets us panicky and off we go to the plastic surgeon to take care of that.  Needless to say that we realize that we would look so much better if we actually fill the top part of the bathing suit and ask for breast augmentation as well.  Of course, if we are at the stage of our life when everything goes south and gravity takes over, then we might throw a breast lift in the menu as well.

The summer, meaning July and August, is a bit slower and only minor procedures are performed … however this also depends on our vacation time, because we could utilize that period for recovery, without having to take time off work.  It will also depend on when we actually schedule our holidays because if we actually plan them for the beginning of the summer, then we might as well have our procedures done right after we get back.

The fall, which in plastic surgery terms runs from September through December, is the preferred time to have facial surgery, ranging from a facelift, to blepharoplasty or rhinoplasty.  Wearing scarves or using heavier makeup is easier when it’s colder, than in the middle of summer when the temperatures are ski rocketing. Having said that, procedures such as breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tuck and mastopexy are not excluded from this period. It is a great time for these type of procedures too, as this gives enough time for all swelling to go down and for the final result of surgery to be eminent … and all this for the next bathing suit season! Plus bandages and dressings can be covered up much easier in layers of clothes and sweaters than tank tops and shorts, which are warn in the warmer months.

Naturally the week between Christmas and New Years could be perfectly used for any procedure and its recovery, so instead of going skiing in Denver you might as well use that time off work to have just about any type of plastic surgery.  Mid December through March is really the “all procedures go” time of the year. 

             Whichever time period you choose, just make sure you give yourself enough time to recover.  Your board certified plastic surgeon will be able to give you exact recovery times and what to expect at any given time post your surgery.  So act accordingly and plan ahead.

THE ART OF CHANGING WITH EXPERIENCE

My grandmother used to tell me that there are only two kinds of people who don’t change their opinion, and these are the crazy and the dead!!! Being a kid and totally inexperienced with life when she was telling me this, I couldn’t really realize what she was saying and what she meant.  But as I was growing up and I was adding experiences in my bag of knowledge I could only kneel to her grand and wise words. 

These words of hers came to mind again last week when I was talking with Dr. Stephanides about the various procedures performed at our office.  I was basically asking him what distinguishes a plastic surgeon from the next one down the street, or in a different state.  It seemed to me that a liposuction is a liposuction and a facelift a facelift from whichever angle you look at it.  And that’s when he started talking and opening up to all that he calls: “aces in his sleeve”.

He was basically explaining how he had done certain operations when he started off at Stanford University Medical Center, so many years ago, but that the procedures, with the “same name,” are now different.  Not meaning that a liposuction is no longer a liposuction … not at all.  What he was really saying is that plastic surgery is really a form of art, an evolution, and the surgeons get better and better with each time they go in the operating room.  A surgeon who loves what he does and is devoted to his patients will dedicate his life to improving each technique, both for the sake of the procedure itself, making it easier, smoother, safer and more efficient, but also for the sake of the patients, making the operations less painful, with a shorter down time and improved results.

I thought that this was really a natural process of progression in any profession … I couldn’t be more wrong!  Dr. Stephanides told me, and I must admit that at the end of our conversation I was utterly convinced, that since the goal of each plastic surgery procedure is to get the best possible results with the highest patient satisfaction, a surgeon needs to be flexible enough to tweak the traditional methodology in such a way as to raise the level of patient gratification and procedure outcome. He also said that of course there is a fine line between tweaking for improvement purposes and modifying so much that it actually becomes experimentation. 

Dr. Stephanides said that the traditional methods are wonderful, as a basis for starting with operations, but as knowledge accumulates over the years, each surgeon must tender to the needs of each individual patient and even though sticking to the traditional methods found in every plastic surgery textbook is safe, it seems that simply bringing “average” results is not the ultimate conclusion.  Flexibility is a must and being rigid to certain ways for the sake of the traditional methods is not desirable, for this will not bring ideal results.

             Summing up, it seems to me that the best way to go about deciding who will hold the scalpel while you are under anesthesia is by visiting and interviewing more than one surgeon … the same way you would act had you wanted to buy a dress!  You don’t simply try one … right?