Some patients that come to us think that we can make permanent changes to the body and gain eternal youth from plastic surgery. This view is fueled by reports of celebrity plastic surgeries. Sadly, this is not the case. Plastic surgery covers a wide range of procedures, and many of them are not permanent. Your body will continue to age, and your lifestyle can also play a factor in how long a procedure lasts.
Let’s take a look at some common procedures and share estimates on how long it will last.
Breast Augmentation
While breast implants are meant to last a lifetime, some do start hardening after about 12-15 years and need replacement. However, this is pretty rare. Most of the time we’ve seen women come back for surgery because they want to hide scars that have revealed themselves after their skin has stretched with age or they want larger implants.
Breast Reduction
For most women, breast reduction surgery is permanent. However, a small percentage of women do start to get larger breasts again even after this surgery. This will become a problem 7-10 years after your reduction surgery. You may also need to get surgery again after age 40 when your metabolism and hormones start changing.
Tummy Tuck
This is one of the few procedures that are permanent. However, it must be maintained through a healthy lifestyle. If you become obese or pregnant again, the muscles and fat will re-stretch. It is best to wait until six months after your pregnancy before getting this procedure to allow the body enough time to recover from pregnancy. Your results will be much better!
Eye Lift
For many sagging skin problems in the face, it’s best to put off the procedure as long as you can in order to get the greatest effect after the surgery. Unless your eyelids are drooping so much they’re obscuring your sight, wait until after you’re 45 to get an eye lift. Eye lifts usually last a lifetime, but depending on lifestyle and genetics you could redevelop a droop in 7-10 years. Once this happens, you can consult with a surgeon to see if it will be worth getting another procedure.
Eye Bag Surgery
This is another surgery to put off if you can until you’re older. If you have hereditary eye bags, try to avoid surgery until you’re over 30 or you may get much more wrinkling under the eye later in life. Eye bag surgery lasts around 7-10 years and the recurrence of bags isn’t as bad as the first time.
Nose Surgery
Structural changes to the nose are permanent. However, it’s hard to do a good nose surgery and it can take up to four years for your nose to fully heal into its final shape. Aging over time may also make further changes to the nose that could require further procedures.
Liposuction
Liposuction does remove fat cells permanently. This means that you’re not likely to gain weight again in the spot where the cells were removed. However, if you do gain the weight back your genetics will put that fat in other places. If you’re lucky, you’ll be at your old weight but still keep a pleasing shape. If not, you may need to get lipo in a different area or work on improving your diet.
For more information about these and other plastic surgery procedures and how long they last, we encourage you to speak with one of our doctors.