Just as getting plastic surgery has become increasingly more popular and common throughout the United States, there’s a growing trend in the number of people looking to get plastic surgery in foreign countries. Over one million people get their plastic surgery in a foreign country every year.
If you’re considering getting a plastic surgery procedure in the near or not-so-near future, you might’ve already considered going abroad for your procedure. There are definitely some advantages to getting your surgery in a foreign country, such as much lower prices, having an excuse to vacation, having the ultimate level of privacy for your surgery, shorter wait times, and having more procedures to choose from.
However, there are also many disadvantages that suggest that getting your surgery in a different country might not be such a good idea. Since the advantages are obvious and clear, which is why people go overseas for surgery, we’re going to explain the reasons why you should avoid plastic surgery in foreign countries.
1. You have a higher risk of getting bad plastic surgery.
Since each country has its different standards of what looks good, different techniques, different materials, and different levels of development in plastic surgery, it’s very difficult to guarantee your surgery will produce good results. There’s always risks of misunderstandings, translation problems, and just problems stemming from the differing beauty trends in each country.
2. The cost of travel and vacation can bring the cost back up.
You need to remember that you won’t only be paying for surgery when you travel to a different country. You’re going to need to buy flights, hotel accommodations, food, and any activity you do while being there. Remember, you’ll probably spend some time there to recover a little, so it’s not going to be an overnight trip. After it all, the prices might be comparable to the U.S., so do the math ahead of time. Remember, you get what you pay for, especially in the world of plastic surgery.
3. The inability to meet with your surgeon for a consultation and post-surgery check-ins can compromise the overall quality of your surgery.
One of the most effective ways to ensure that you get a high-quality procedure is to clear up any questions, concerns, or being on different pages during your consultation. Since you’ll be in a different country, you’ll be lucky to have a phone consultation. Without being able to ask the doctor about his experience, his practice, his specialties, and what to expect, you’ll have to do even more research before you go.
4. There’s a stronger possibility that you will suffer from complications due to traveling back home during recovery.
Not only will you be in a different country with a different climate and a different environment with different health and cleanliness standards, but traveling home adds to the possible complications. The high altitude increases the risk of excessive swelling and infection spreading. So if you go, you will likely want to spend no less than the first week of recovery in the other country, and maybe return home.
5. There will be extra safety concerns due to the different standards in different countries.
Without organizations such as the FDA, there will be very different standards and requirements in the country you get the surgery in. This can easily compromise your health, safety, comfort, and satisfaction with your experience. You could undergo your procedure in a facility that is not up to par, or the surgery could use tools that are not FDA-approved. For instance, some countries use soybean oil filled breast implants, which have been deemed unsafe by American medical agencies such as the FDA.
6. It is usually much more difficult to research your surgeon, the facility, the overall quality of both, and how his past procedures have gone.
Doing research about things in foreign countries can be very difficult since their systems are a bit different, not to mention language barriers. Also, it’s difficult to tell which qualifications you should look for and which accreditations you should require since you have no idea what the standards are in general.
At the end of the day, the decision where to get plastic surgery is yours. You have the ultimate decision because it’s your surgery and you’re making adjustments that you desire for you. If it makes more sense for you to get your surgery in a different country, then that’s that. Just always be extra cautious in making your decision because without the standards here in the U.S., you could easily compromise the quality and safety of your procedure without even being aware of it. Remember, plastic surgery is still surgery, and you should take it very seriously.