Unhappy With Cosmetic Surgery Results? What To Do Next
Kenneth R. Lee, MD
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Deciding to have plastic surgery is a highly personal choice. If your expectations aren’t met, you might feel your surgery was “botched.” So what happens next?
Non-Surgical Fixes vs. Surgical Revisions: What Are Your Options?
Most of the time, problems with minimally invasive methods like injections don’t require surgery to fix — there are medications that can dissolve what was placed initially, and these cases also tend to resolve themselves over time.
If you are unhappy with a surgical outcome and seek a second opinion, it’s critical for your doctor to try to understand what was done in the previous surgery that needs to be revised. That information will allow your doctor to figure out the safest way to execute a secondary procedure. In many ways, the technical aspect of it can be easier than meeting the psychological aspects of your expectations.
That’s why having a consultation with your new doctor, where you clearly express what you’re unhappy about, is so important. Many patients have a hard time expressing what they don’t like, so the surgeon has to drill down: Is it a size issue? An appearance issue? Was their expectation for something entirely different?
Functional vs. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Issues (And How They Are Treated)
Let’s say a patient had rhinoplasty, the standard term for a nose job. After surgery, they don't breathe as well. That's a functional issue. There are many things that can be done for a functional issue like partial collapse of part of the nose. Those are things that are very black and white that can be fixed.
But often after rhinoplasty, a patient is unhappy with the shape of their nose. And there might be 25 different things that affect that shape. All of those must be discussed in detail — with thorough analysis of expectations, drawings and pictures — just to get on the same page as the patient. So in secondary consultations, it's important for a surgeon to figure out: Can I help that patient?
How To Handle Plastic Surgery Recovery Before Seeking a Revision
Many times in secondary consultations, patients will admit the first consultation didn’t feel right. They might have felt rushed, that they weren’t heard, didn't get enough time with the surgeon or didn't get a second visit when they wanted one.
Trust your gut. You don't have any control when you're under anesthesia — you must trust the surgeon. And the only way to build that trust is to spend a lot of time together.
Even with procedures like breast enlargement or augmentation with implants — it’s not as simple as just making a breast bigger. There are 10 different ways a breast can look once it’s been augmented. If a surgeon doesn’t spend enough time understanding those things, they’re likely going to disappoint the patient.
It's also important to keep a realistic view of what’s possible and having conversations about it. There are some things that surgeons just cannot do.
You might be unhappy the first week after surgery. but the key is to understand that you have to let things heal a little bit first. Swelling and trauma to tissues need to “calm down” — that takes some time. Unless you had a truly terrible experience with your initial surgeon, give them a chance to explain what is going on and what they expect to see over time, so you can work through any issues together.
This content is not AI generated.
