You know that feeling you get when you find something that you’ve been eyeing for a while at your local retailer on major sale; it’s like you just won the lottery of all sales and that’s exciting. We all work hard to earn our livings and it’s always nice to be able to reward ourselves with something we truly want. For many of my breast surgery patients, cosmetic plastic surgery is their investment to improving their mind, body and soul. It’s a gift for themselves and something that many of them have thoroughly considered over long periods of time. If I had to weigh in on the two major concerns that limit more people from exploring plastic surgery procedures, I’d say it directly relates to time and money. Plastic surgery is an investment but it’s not as unattainable as some of you may have been led to believe – in fact, affordable plastic surgery exists, you just have to know where to start and how to do it.
Price comparing for plastic surgery isn’t a bad thing, but don’t be fooled by deals that sound too good to be true. Throughout the year surgeons may offer plastic surgery specials on featured procedures or to help offset the costs of surgical fees in order to help patients financially. While saving money is important, when it comes to your health, you want to keep your safety on the forefront of your decision making and thoroughly research the credentials of any plastic surgeon you’re considering. Whether they are board certified should be more important than if you’re getting a buy one, get one deal from a surgeon who isn’t. If you’re curious about a particular practice, keep up with current and ongoing specials that may be of interest to you by following them on social media, subscribing to their plastic surgery newsletter or even just reaching out and giving them a call to see what (if any) specials are being offered. Unless you ask or actively do your research, how can you possibly know?
Other ways that patients save money is by combining procedures. Circling back to the time and money considerations, the downtime needed for a breast procedure is not as long as you may think. Sure you won’t be back in the gym the week after surgery, but you’ll be up and moving in a few days and back to work in a week or two, depending on the type of breast procedure you choose. For example, one of my patients could come in considering a breast augmentation but depending on the toll gravity and natural aging has had on the breasts we may determine that combining a breast lift will really help get the best results for their goal. When we combine procedures you’re only on the operating table once. Why not combine the recovery time into one rather than having one procedure, recovering, then going back at a later time to have your second procedure? Of course there’s nothing wrong with having separate procedures, it just seems that it doesn’t benefit the patient as much financially in the long run if they have to miss extra work or pay double the amount in operation room and anesthesia costs. In my opinion, if you’re already trying to get optimal breast surgery results, get it out of the way at once so you can get back to your routine faster.
Breast procedures aren’t generally covered by insurance as they are considered cosmetic cases and entirely elective. To help patients reduce the stress of paying for their surgery all at once, many practices offer special financing options through highly-established financial institutions within the healthcare industry. At Southern Plastic Surgery (SPS) we are partnered with CareCredit®, Prosper Healthcare, and Alphaeon™ which each offer different benefits. From zero interest charges to low monthly payments, patients can find out in a matter of minutes their plastic surgery financing decision. Whenever patients meet with us during a consultation, we discuss the various lenders and provide printed materials to help them select a program that works best for their financial planning.
All of the SPS team is knowledgeable in working with patients to strategically plan for their plastic surgery procedure because we believe it really can be affordable for patients. We keep an open door policy at SPS, so if you’re interested in learning more about our featured procedures and the monthly plastic surgery specials we offer, don’t hesitate to give us a call, or better yet, come see us so we can get to know you, and you us!