February 18, 2025 • 21 mins
What holds many people back from getting plastic surgery? It’s often the idea of recovery. The thought of stepping away from work or social activities can feel overwhelming, but everyone finds their own solution to the recovery puzzle when the timing and circumstances feel right.
Spending too much time avoiding recovery can mean missing out on a procedure you’ve wanted for a while. If you have a big event coming up and want to refine your appearance, planning ahead for recovery is key.
Make room in your life to prioritize your aesthetic goals. If it's something you're going to do eventually, why not do it now and enjoy the results longer?
Dr. Bass covers:
-
Different types of recovery, from resting at home to stepping back from social activities while you heal
-
How recovery time and experiences vary depending on the procedure and your unique journey
-
The typical recovery timelines for popular treatments, from surgeries like face lifts and tummy tucks to nonsurgical options like injectables and energy-based treatments
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Park AvenuePlastic Surgery Class,
the podcast where we explore controversiesand breaking issues in plastic
surgery. I'm your co-host, summer Hardy,
a clinical assistant at BassPlastic Surgery in New York City.
I'm excited to be here with Dr. LawrenceBass, Park Avenue, plastic surgeon,
educator, and technology innovator.
Today's episode is Recovery Riddle.
(00:25):
Okay, Dr. Bass, I have an idea aboutwhat this is about, but to be sure,
fill me in a bit. What'sthe riddle with recovery?
We all know treatments andsurgeries can have recovery,
and we accept this as part of the waythings are at least in the abstract.
But when it comes time togo ahead with a treatment,
(00:45):
many people are reluctant to step
out of their day-to-day schedule.
We all lead busy lives and it's hardto make the time to get something done,
and in a lot of ways we become morereluctant to be pulled out of full
activities. After the pandemic,we spent so many months,
(01:06):
years locked up at home, not goinginto the office, not socializing,
not traveling.
And so now that we're back,
we have that fear of missing out.
We don't want to have to belaid up again and spend a
few days or a week or whateverthe recovery interval will be.
(01:30):
A lot of people during the pandemicactually took advantage of the fact that a
lot of those activities stopped.Some of my patients who had business
travel for the last 20 yearsand never had a good time,
finally had no business travel and theywere at home and able to do it or they
were working remotely and it waseasier to put in or remote interval
(01:53):
recovering at home thanbefore the pandemic.
So some people squeeze thingsin during the pandemic.
That's part of it.
Part of it is how toexplore recovery time,
but basically if you're avoidingavoiding avoiding recovery
time, you end up with pent up desires.
(02:15):
And then often there's precipitousdecision making that I'm going to go ahead
with something or you have to go aheadwith something because you have a wedding
coming up, a big family event,
something where you have to refineyour appearance and you end up doing
it when you don't have enough time.When if you planned a little better,
(02:36):
it would've fit in muchbetter with your schedule.
So I'm kind of beating the drumhere for planning for biting
the bullet and getting the benefit,
and that's what this episode isabout, how to figure that out.
That makes sense. So how does all ofthis factor into patient decision making?
(02:58):
So the number one factorthat I see in my patients in
deciding to go aheadwith a surgery or even a
treatment, it's not surgery,is the recovery time.
That's the number one thing that makes
patients decide whether or notthey're going to do something.
(03:22):
They're willing to havethis or that surgery,
and then when it's time to actually put a
number on it, basically picka date when you can do it.
That's yet another stumbling blockwhen the idea of recovery time
arrests people, they can'tcommit to a date, okay,
(03:42):
I'm going to take a week offstarting the 5th of November or
whatever. They know they want to do it,
but they're not ready to step out of daily
routine and make that commitment.
Got it. I know it'sintuitive to an extent,
but what do you mean by recovery?Can you give me a working definition?
(04:05):
So this is actually really importantand that's a great question.
Traditional recovery time means a limit in
activity that could be mild,
like you can't go to the gym or itcould be almost total like you have to
stay at home lying in bed.
And so that's one kind of recoverytime where you're really sidelined
(04:30):
from work, socializing,
running errands because youneed to rest at home to allow a
surgery to heal safely. That'sone kind of recovery time.
There's the recovery time whereyou're off sports spending,
lifting heavy exertion, that'sanother kind of recovery time.
That interval's going to be differentfrom your lying around at home time.
(04:55):
And then there's something wesometimes call social recovery time.
This is a period oftime when you feel well,
you're able to do everything physically,
both in terms of how you feel andin terms of it being medically safe,
but something is showing inyour appearance that makes you not want to be seen
by family, friends, coworkers, the public.
(05:19):
So social recovery time,
and this is more associated withtreatments than with surgery.
But even with surgery, there's aperiod of time when there's bruising,
swelling when you may feel perfectly fine,
you could work on the telephone,
do paperwork at home,
but you don't really want people to seeyou yet because they would be able to
(05:42):
see that you arerecovering from something.
Okay. Now that we know the definitions,we need to talk about amount,
what do you tell patientsabout recovery, Dr. Bass?
Usually patients hear are asimple bottom line number.
Recovery is two weeks, butas we just pointed out,
first of all, what kind ofrecovery? There's more than one.
(06:05):
And if you have a surgery, there's goingto be some lying around recovery time,
and then there's going to be someout of the gym recovery time,
and there may be a third numberfor social recovery time.
But separate from that,
those numbers represent an average.
And if you want to look deeper ateach of those kinds of recovery,
(06:28):
you have to think of an average number.
That's what if we took ahundred people, lined them up,
gave them a certain treatment andmeasured how much time it took till
they could go back to workor till they could socialize.
That would be the average number.
But there's also a range in that groupof a hundred people. Most of the people
(06:49):
are going to be clustered around thataverage number cluster or minus a day or
two. But a few people aregoing to be really lucky.
They thought they weregoing to have two weeks off,
but at a week they look good andthey feel well and they're ready
to be back out and around. And there'llbe some people who are unlucky,
(07:09):
they bled a little more,
they really got knocked outby the stress of the surgery
more than most people do or somereason we can't put our finger on.
But it's just taking themlonger to get back to normal.
And so no one can promise you a number.
They can tell you whatthe average number is,
(07:29):
what the average number is in theirexperience, in their practice,
but they also are going to hopefullygive you an idea of what the range
is like,
and they may be able to tell you alittle bit about if you have a risk
factor that might modulateyour risk up a little bit.
(07:50):
If you know you're a bruiser,
you brush by a desk and you get a bigpurple bruise on your thigh for two or
three weeks,
you're probably going to have a littlebit longer recovery time than average if
you have a mild clotting disorderor some other medical condition that
can just increase for your recoverytime a little bit, your healing time.
(08:13):
That's really interesting. I didn'trealize how in depth recovery can be.
Based on these numbers,how should patients plan?
So this is the practicaldimension because the idea behind
doing this episode was to help peoplethink a little bit about how they should
think and make decisionswith their aesthetic plan.
(08:34):
So I suggest the first thingis to get a consultation or
sometimes two or three ifyou want a few opinions,
find out what procedure you need,
don't assume you knowwhat procedure you need,
and then find out from the surgeonwhat their projection is of recovery
time because a lot ofpeople think they know,
(08:57):
but that may not bewhat it is currently in
2024.
So you try to work onrecovery estimates that the
expert is telling youwork in their practice,
and the name of the game for us in modernaesthetic plastic surgery is telling
patients as close to hittingthe nail on the head as we
(09:22):
possibly can what recovery islike, I can't tell someone,
well, it could be up to three months.I mean,
no one can take threemonths off in modern life.
That just doesn't work the wayit worked decades ago in plastic
surgery. We've got to be ableto let you plan very precisely.
(09:42):
We can never promise. There canalways be variation, but we've got,
it's our job to get as close aswe can so that you don't have
some disruption so that you can plan.
I also recommend thatyou don't put it off.
You plan a time that will give youa window of activity around major
work obligations, big trips,big family obligations,
(10:06):
but you have to put some priorityaround getting the procedure done.
And it depends very much on howmuch recovery is involved. For many,
many things, it's just a long weekend,
and so you wait for the time of yearwhen there are some three day weekends or
when it's easy to take a day off of work,
something like that.It's never a good time,
(10:27):
but it's fun to do these things.It's fun to get the change,
and so it's worth the commitmentof time. Sometimes it's a vacation.
A lot of my patients really want tosave those for fun. They want to travel,
they want to go out and do sports,
and being laid up with the surgeryis not going to let them do that.
(10:48):
But sometimes you get that
years long result of doinga surgery and that aesthetic
change that you've really beenbothered and bothered for years
by an aesthetic feature, youfinally get that addressed.
That's really worthputting some priority on.
(11:11):
A lot of patients will come in theoffice and do the consultation they
can because for a reason,
because some future was botheringthem enough to make a visit to
the doctor's office. If it'sbothering you enough to do that,
it's probably worth the bother of doingthe procedure if there's a reliable way
of improving the feature.
(11:32):
So it's worth leaving enoughtime to do those things,
and that's the final point.
He didn't need to leave enough timeto heal properly so you get a great
result. And trying toshort circuit things,
going back to activities prematurely,
is asking for a complicationor a healing delay,
something that we're really,
(11:54):
really trying to avoid inaesthetic plastic surgery.
And that is avoidable ifyou play by the rules,
but all of those rulesexist for a good reason.
All of that makes a lot of sense. Now,
can you give me some specificexamples for surgical procedures?
Well, they can. First of all,
each surgeon's going to be a little bitdifferent based on his or her technique
(12:17):
and his or her managementprogram for patients
afterwards. But typically formost facelifts or neck lifts
period, somewhere betweenone and two weeks is enough.
I usually tell patients a weekto a week and a half is you're
out of the public eyerecovery time and two
(12:41):
weeks if you're really trying tokeep it a state secret. For eyes,
it's usually five to sevendays. For liposuction,
for most liposuction areasand for an average liposuction
volume, say two to three liters,
it might be a few days off ofthe office like a long weekend.
(13:03):
If you're doing a very large volumeliposuction, that's a different story.
And for very small areas,the recovery is very short,
typically minimum.
Adominoplasty is the big one.
Adominoplasty is somewherebetween one and two weeks off of
work. Breast augmentation,typically a week off of work,
(13:26):
breast lifts, breast reductionsbetween one and two weeks. Typically,
this is going to be modulated.
If you're doing multipleprocedures at the same time,
you're going to startinching up on recovery.
And if you're just doinga single treatment,
most of the time can hit these numbers.
And what about nonsurgical treatments?
(13:47):
So these numbers are all over the map,depending on what the treatment is,
where injectables, Botox, fillers,
there's usually no recovery,
but there's often a little dropof swelling or shape irregularity
early on, settles for a few days.
You are more aware of itthan other people are,
(14:10):
but there's always a bruising risk.Anytime you break the skin with a needle,
you can get a bruise andif you get a bruise that,
it's not going to keep you out of the gym,
it's not going to keep you fromtraveling, but it's social downtime.
A little faint bruise mighthide with little makeup,
but for a very dense purple bruise,
(14:33):
takes a couple of weeks to go awayand does not conceal very easily with
makeup. So that's the injectablestory. Energy treatments, again,
are all over the map andthere's a lot of variation,
both based on what thetreatment is and on how
skin reacts.Some people have very sensitive skin,
(14:55):
they get red, they stay veryred or very swollen longer,
and other people have very toughresilience skin that doesn't react
very much when they get evenfairly aggressive treatment.
So there are treatments like Ultherapyand sSofwave that are skin tighteners or
skin lifters and they have no social
(15:17):
downtime. You look and feelnormal right after the treatment.
There are things like IPL,
intense pulse light treatmentsor broadband light treatments,
microneedling treatments whereyou can have almost no recovery.
The skin might look a littlekicked up for a day or two,
but you can do most of yoursocial and work activities
(15:40):
or you could get a lot ofredness, a lot of swelling,
a lot of irregularity on the surfacewith a microneedling treatment that may
take several days to settle down.
That's going to depend on the energydevice. It's going to depend on your skin.
It's going to depend on how aggressivelythe treatment needs to be done,
how severe your featuresare that you're treating.
(16:04):
And actual resurfacingtreatments that leave a raw
skin surface obviously have healing time,
and that's both social recovery andsometimes some staying at home recovery
time.
But those things usually won't keepyou out of the gym or exertion or
affect how well you feel.They just affect how you look.
(16:26):
Okay, so in summary,
what would you tell patients aboutrecovery time and surgery or procedures?
So nowadays, procedures arefaster, easier, and more reliable.
That's the good news,
and that means that recoverytime is telescope down,
but there still is somerecovery time required.
(16:48):
So before you do something,
understand what exactly to expectso you can plan an appropriate
amount of time and alsobuild a small buffer
in because there is somevariation. Don't say,
"well,
I assume this is going to go thesame as the best person who ever had
(17:10):
this treatment in the history ofhumanity," because you might be the second
person, but not likely.
You're probably going to besomewhere around that average.
But give plus or minus a day just in case.
Get a consultation from an experiencedaesthetic plastic surgeon to find
out what the number is.Don't assume you know,
(17:32):
and doctor internet doesn'talways give you the right answer,
and it may not apply to the particulartechnique or approach that the
surgeon you are working with uses
overall. What I'd like to sayto patients is build enough time
in your life to pursue yourpriority aesthetic items.
(17:57):
If you're going to dosomething sooner or later,
you may as well do itnow and enjoy it longer.
If you really think you're goingto live to be 90 or 100 and never
do X, Y, Z procedure, fine.Put it off. Put it off.
If you change your mind, you can do it.
But if you're going to do it sooner orlater and you have a moderate amount of
(18:20):
that change or that undesiredattribute that the procedure's going
to fix, if you do it sooner, you're goingto get to enjoy it that much longer.
That's true with anti-agingor rejuvenation aesthetic
surgeries. And it's especially truewith things that change your appearance,
rhinoplasty, facial implants,
(18:41):
other face shaping or body shapingthings where you're going to keep that
change for years, years,
years rather than sufferingwith a future you're not happy
with. Bite the bullet, commit therecovery time and get what you want.
As I said, plan enough time to healwell so you get a great result.
(19:02):
Don't break the rules.
The rules are designed to preventyou repeating someone else's problem.
We learned a lesson, a rulewas made, how to avoid that.
They're not arbitrary. They're notjust to make things inconvenient.
You modulate your recovery a littlebit based on where your privacy
(19:23):
thermostat is set.
Some people don't want anyone to knowexcept the one or two immediate family
members and other people aremuch more public about it.
Practicing in the Northeastern UnitedStates where people tend to keep it a
secret except from one or twoclose friends and family members,
and if you live in otherparts of the country,
(19:43):
you tell everyone and show everyone.
But if you are in a placewhere you're not telling,
you need to plan a drop more timethan if you're in a place where you're
comfortable telling and showingeveryone, I will tell you,
it's hard to keep it asecret from immediate family members who you live with,
(20:03):
but some people try andsucceed in doing that. But
you don't want to get caughtand outed if you don't have to.
So sometimes it's betterto just stay ahead of time.
So there's never a good time to doa plastic surgery because we lead
busy lives. We have a lot of fun,interesting, and important things to do.
(20:26):
It's like having children.There's never a good time,
but you want to be sure to get it doneor you'll really miss out on something
worthwhile.
So everyone at the end of the day hastheir own solution to the recovery
riddle, the right timeand the right place.
It's a very worthwhile riddlefor everyone to solve for
(20:48):
themselves,
and I wish the listeners good luckin solving this recovery riddle.
Thank you Dr. Bass for giving me a betterunderstanding of the ins and outs of
recovery time and thereasons and motivations for working aesthetic treatments
into my busy New York schedule.
Thank you for listening to the ParkAvenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast.
(21:09):
Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
write a review and sharethe show with your friends.
Be sure to join us next time to avoidmissing all the great content that is
coming your way. If you want tocontact us with comments or questions,
we'd love to hear from you.
Send us an email atpodcast@drbass.net or DM us
on Instagram @drbassnyc.
Welcome to Park AvenuePlastic Surgery Class,
the podcast where we explore controversiesand breaking issues in plastic
surgery. I'm your co-host, summer Hardy,
a clinical assistant at BassPlastic Surgery in New York City.
I'm excited to be here with Dr. LawrenceBass, Park Avenue, plastic surgeon,
educator, and technology innovator.
Today's episode is Recovery Riddle.
(00:25):
Okay, Dr. Bass, I have an idea aboutwhat this is about, but to be sure,
fill me in a bit. What'sthe riddle with recovery?
We all know treatments andsurgeries can have recovery,
and we accept this as part of the waythings are at least in the abstract.
But when it comes time togo ahead with a treatment,
(00:45):
many people are reluctant to step
out of their day-to-day schedule.
We all lead busy lives and it's hardto make the time to get something done,
and in a lot of ways we become morereluctant to be pulled out of full
activities. After the pandemic,we spent so many months,
(01:06):
years locked up at home, not goinginto the office, not socializing,
not traveling.
And so now that we're back,
we have that fear of missing out.
We don't want to have to belaid up again and spend a
few days or a week or whateverthe recovery interval will be.
(01:30):
A lot of people during the pandemicactually took advantage of the fact that a
lot of those activities stopped.Some of my patients who had business
travel for the last 20 yearsand never had a good time,
finally had no business travel and theywere at home and able to do it or they
were working remotely and it waseasier to put in or remote interval
(01:53):
recovering at home thanbefore the pandemic.
So some people squeeze thingsin during the pandemic.
That's part of it.
Part of it is how toexplore recovery time,
but basically if you're avoidingavoiding avoiding recovery
time, you end up with pent up desires.
(02:15):
And then often there's precipitousdecision making that I'm going to go ahead
with something or you have to go aheadwith something because you have a wedding
coming up, a big family event,
something where you have to refineyour appearance and you end up doing
it when you don't have enough time.When if you planned a little better,
(02:36):
it would've fit in muchbetter with your schedule.
So I'm kind of beating the drumhere for planning for biting
the bullet and getting the benefit,
and that's what this episode isabout, how to figure that out.
That makes sense. So how does all ofthis factor into patient decision making?
(02:58):
So the number one factorthat I see in my patients in
deciding to go aheadwith a surgery or even a
treatment, it's not surgery,is the recovery time.
That's the number one thing that makes
patients decide whether or notthey're going to do something.
(03:22):
They're willing to havethis or that surgery,
and then when it's time to actually put a
number on it, basically picka date when you can do it.
That's yet another stumbling blockwhen the idea of recovery time
arrests people, they can'tcommit to a date, okay,
(03:42):
I'm going to take a week offstarting the 5th of November or
whatever. They know they want to do it,
but they're not ready to step out of daily
routine and make that commitment.
Got it. I know it'sintuitive to an extent,
but what do you mean by recovery?Can you give me a working definition?
(04:05):
So this is actually really importantand that's a great question.
Traditional recovery time means a limit in
activity that could be mild,
like you can't go to the gym or itcould be almost total like you have to
stay at home lying in bed.
And so that's one kind of recoverytime where you're really sidelined
(04:30):
from work, socializing,
running errands because youneed to rest at home to allow a
surgery to heal safely. That'sone kind of recovery time.
There's the recovery time whereyou're off sports spending,
lifting heavy exertion, that'sanother kind of recovery time.
That interval's going to be differentfrom your lying around at home time.
(04:55):
And then there's something wesometimes call social recovery time.
This is a period oftime when you feel well,
you're able to do everything physically,
both in terms of how you feel andin terms of it being medically safe,
but something is showing inyour appearance that makes you not want to be seen
by family, friends, coworkers, the public.
(05:19):
So social recovery time,
and this is more associated withtreatments than with surgery.
But even with surgery, there's aperiod of time when there's bruising,
swelling when you may feel perfectly fine,
you could work on the telephone,
do paperwork at home,
but you don't really want people to seeyou yet because they would be able to
(05:42):
see that you arerecovering from something.
Okay. Now that we know the definitions,we need to talk about amount,
what do you tell patientsabout recovery, Dr. Bass?
Usually patients hear are asimple bottom line number.
Recovery is two weeks, butas we just pointed out,
first of all, what kind ofrecovery? There's more than one.
(06:05):
And if you have a surgery, there's goingto be some lying around recovery time,
and then there's going to be someout of the gym recovery time,
and there may be a third numberfor social recovery time.
But separate from that,
those numbers represent an average.
And if you want to look deeper ateach of those kinds of recovery,
(06:28):
you have to think of an average number.
That's what if we took ahundred people, lined them up,
gave them a certain treatment andmeasured how much time it took till
they could go back to workor till they could socialize.
That would be the average number.
But there's also a range in that groupof a hundred people. Most of the people
(06:49):
are going to be clustered around thataverage number cluster or minus a day or
two. But a few people aregoing to be really lucky.
They thought they weregoing to have two weeks off,
but at a week they look good andthey feel well and they're ready
to be back out and around. And there'llbe some people who are unlucky,
(07:09):
they bled a little more,
they really got knocked outby the stress of the surgery
more than most people do or somereason we can't put our finger on.
But it's just taking themlonger to get back to normal.
And so no one can promise you a number.
They can tell you whatthe average number is,
(07:29):
what the average number is in theirexperience, in their practice,
but they also are going to hopefullygive you an idea of what the range
is like,
and they may be able to tell you alittle bit about if you have a risk
factor that might modulateyour risk up a little bit.
(07:50):
If you know you're a bruiser,
you brush by a desk and you get a bigpurple bruise on your thigh for two or
three weeks,
you're probably going to have a littlebit longer recovery time than average if
you have a mild clotting disorderor some other medical condition that
can just increase for your recoverytime a little bit, your healing time.
(08:13):
That's really interesting. I didn'trealize how in depth recovery can be.
Based on these numbers,how should patients plan?
So this is the practicaldimension because the idea behind
doing this episode was to help peoplethink a little bit about how they should
think and make decisionswith their aesthetic plan.
(08:34):
So I suggest the first thingis to get a consultation or
sometimes two or three ifyou want a few opinions,
find out what procedure you need,
don't assume you knowwhat procedure you need,
and then find out from the surgeonwhat their projection is of recovery
time because a lot ofpeople think they know,
(08:57):
but that may not bewhat it is currently in
2024.
So you try to work onrecovery estimates that the
expert is telling youwork in their practice,
and the name of the game for us in modernaesthetic plastic surgery is telling
patients as close to hittingthe nail on the head as we
(09:22):
possibly can what recovery islike, I can't tell someone,
well, it could be up to three months.I mean,
no one can take threemonths off in modern life.
That just doesn't work the wayit worked decades ago in plastic
surgery. We've got to be ableto let you plan very precisely.
(09:42):
We can never promise. There canalways be variation, but we've got,
it's our job to get as close aswe can so that you don't have
some disruption so that you can plan.
I also recommend thatyou don't put it off.
You plan a time that will give youa window of activity around major
work obligations, big trips,big family obligations,
(10:06):
but you have to put some priorityaround getting the procedure done.
And it depends very much on howmuch recovery is involved. For many,
many things, it's just a long weekend,
and so you wait for the time of yearwhen there are some three day weekends or
when it's easy to take a day off of work,
something like that.It's never a good time,
(10:27):
but it's fun to do these things.It's fun to get the change,
and so it's worth the commitmentof time. Sometimes it's a vacation.
A lot of my patients really want tosave those for fun. They want to travel,
they want to go out and do sports,
and being laid up with the surgeryis not going to let them do that.
(10:48):
But sometimes you get that
years long result of doinga surgery and that aesthetic
change that you've really beenbothered and bothered for years
by an aesthetic feature, youfinally get that addressed.
That's really worthputting some priority on.
(11:11):
A lot of patients will come in theoffice and do the consultation they
can because for a reason,
because some future was botheringthem enough to make a visit to
the doctor's office. If it'sbothering you enough to do that,
it's probably worth the bother of doingthe procedure if there's a reliable way
of improving the feature.
(11:32):
So it's worth leaving enoughtime to do those things,
and that's the final point.
He didn't need to leave enough timeto heal properly so you get a great
result. And trying toshort circuit things,
going back to activities prematurely,
is asking for a complicationor a healing delay,
something that we're really,
(11:54):
really trying to avoid inaesthetic plastic surgery.
And that is avoidable ifyou play by the rules,
but all of those rulesexist for a good reason.
All of that makes a lot of sense. Now,
can you give me some specificexamples for surgical procedures?
Well, they can. First of all,
each surgeon's going to be a little bitdifferent based on his or her technique
(12:17):
and his or her managementprogram for patients
afterwards. But typically formost facelifts or neck lifts
period, somewhere betweenone and two weeks is enough.
I usually tell patients a weekto a week and a half is you're
out of the public eyerecovery time and two
(12:41):
weeks if you're really trying tokeep it a state secret. For eyes,
it's usually five to sevendays. For liposuction,
for most liposuction areasand for an average liposuction
volume, say two to three liters,
it might be a few days off ofthe office like a long weekend.
(13:03):
If you're doing a very large volumeliposuction, that's a different story.
And for very small areas,the recovery is very short,
typically minimum.
Adominoplasty is the big one.
Adominoplasty is somewherebetween one and two weeks off of
work. Breast augmentation,typically a week off of work,
(13:26):
breast lifts, breast reductionsbetween one and two weeks. Typically,
this is going to be modulated.
If you're doing multipleprocedures at the same time,
you're going to startinching up on recovery.
And if you're just doinga single treatment,
most of the time can hit these numbers.
And what about nonsurgical treatments?
(13:47):
So these numbers are all over the map,depending on what the treatment is,
where injectables, Botox, fillers,
there's usually no recovery,
but there's often a little dropof swelling or shape irregularity
early on, settles for a few days.
You are more aware of itthan other people are,
(14:10):
but there's always a bruising risk.Anytime you break the skin with a needle,
you can get a bruise andif you get a bruise that,
it's not going to keep you out of the gym,
it's not going to keep you fromtraveling, but it's social downtime.
A little faint bruise mighthide with little makeup,
but for a very dense purple bruise,
(14:33):
takes a couple of weeks to go awayand does not conceal very easily with
makeup. So that's the injectablestory. Energy treatments, again,
are all over the map andthere's a lot of variation,
both based on what thetreatment is and on how
skin reacts.Some people have very sensitive skin,
(14:55):
they get red, they stay veryred or very swollen longer,
and other people have very toughresilience skin that doesn't react
very much when they get evenfairly aggressive treatment.
So there are treatments like Ultherapyand sSofwave that are skin tighteners or
skin lifters and they have no social
(15:17):
downtime. You look and feelnormal right after the treatment.
There are things like IPL,
intense pulse light treatmentsor broadband light treatments,
microneedling treatments whereyou can have almost no recovery.
The skin might look a littlekicked up for a day or two,
but you can do most of yoursocial and work activities
(15:40):
or you could get a lot ofredness, a lot of swelling,
a lot of irregularity on the surfacewith a microneedling treatment that may
take several days to settle down.
That's going to depend on the energydevice. It's going to depend on your skin.
It's going to depend on how aggressivelythe treatment needs to be done,
how severe your featuresare that you're treating.
(16:04):
And actual resurfacingtreatments that leave a raw
skin surface obviously have healing time,
and that's both social recovery andsometimes some staying at home recovery
time.
But those things usually won't keepyou out of the gym or exertion or
affect how well you feel.They just affect how you look.
(16:26):
Okay, so in summary,
what would you tell patients aboutrecovery time and surgery or procedures?
So nowadays, procedures arefaster, easier, and more reliable.
That's the good news,
and that means that recoverytime is telescope down,
but there still is somerecovery time required.
(16:48):
So before you do something,
understand what exactly to expectso you can plan an appropriate
amount of time and alsobuild a small buffer
in because there is somevariation. Don't say,
"well,
I assume this is going to go thesame as the best person who ever had
(17:10):
this treatment in the history ofhumanity," because you might be the second
person, but not likely.
You're probably going to besomewhere around that average.
But give plus or minus a day just in case.
Get a consultation from an experiencedaesthetic plastic surgeon to find
out what the number is.Don't assume you know,
(17:32):
and doctor internet doesn'talways give you the right answer,
and it may not apply to the particulartechnique or approach that the
surgeon you are working with uses
overall. What I'd like to sayto patients is build enough time
in your life to pursue yourpriority aesthetic items.
(17:57):
If you're going to dosomething sooner or later,
you may as well do itnow and enjoy it longer.
If you really think you're goingto live to be 90 or 100 and never
do X, Y, Z procedure, fine.Put it off. Put it off.
If you change your mind, you can do it.
But if you're going to do it sooner orlater and you have a moderate amount of
(18:20):
that change or that undesiredattribute that the procedure's going
to fix, if you do it sooner, you're goingto get to enjoy it that much longer.
That's true with anti-agingor rejuvenation aesthetic
surgeries. And it's especially truewith things that change your appearance,
rhinoplasty, facial implants,
(18:41):
other face shaping or body shapingthings where you're going to keep that
change for years, years,
years rather than sufferingwith a future you're not happy
with. Bite the bullet, commit therecovery time and get what you want.
As I said, plan enough time to healwell so you get a great result.
(19:02):
Don't break the rules.
The rules are designed to preventyou repeating someone else's problem.
We learned a lesson, a rulewas made, how to avoid that.
They're not arbitrary. They're notjust to make things inconvenient.
You modulate your recovery a littlebit based on where your privacy
(19:23):
thermostat is set.
Some people don't want anyone to knowexcept the one or two immediate family
members and other people aremuch more public about it.
Practicing in the Northeastern UnitedStates where people tend to keep it a
secret except from one or twoclose friends and family members,
and if you live in otherparts of the country,
(19:43):
you tell everyone and show everyone.
But if you are in a placewhere you're not telling,
you need to plan a drop more timethan if you're in a place where you're
comfortable telling and showingeveryone, I will tell you,
it's hard to keep it asecret from immediate family members who you live with,
(20:03):
but some people try andsucceed in doing that. But
you don't want to get caughtand outed if you don't have to.
So sometimes it's betterto just stay ahead of time.
So there's never a good time to doa plastic surgery because we lead
busy lives. We have a lot of fun,interesting, and important things to do.
(20:26):
It's like having children.There's never a good time,
but you want to be sure to get it doneor you'll really miss out on something
worthwhile.
So everyone at the end of the day hastheir own solution to the recovery
riddle, the right timeand the right place.
It's a very worthwhile riddlefor everyone to solve for
(20:48):
themselves,
and I wish the listeners good luckin solving this recovery riddle.
Thank you Dr. Bass for giving me a betterunderstanding of the ins and outs of
recovery time and thereasons and motivations for working aesthetic treatments
into my busy New York schedule.
Thank you for listening to the ParkAvenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast.
(21:09):
Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
write a review and sharethe show with your friends.
Be sure to join us next time to avoidmissing all the great content that is
coming your way. If you want tocontact us with comments or questions,
we'd love to hear from you.
Send us an email atpodcast@drbass.net or DM us
on Instagram @drbassnyc.
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