Breast Implant Surgery - Financing Options

The body looking back at you in the mirror is not the one you remember or the one you wanted. Whether you've lost the voluptuous curves and cleavage or you never had them to begin with, you've decided it is time for a change. There's no reason why you can't have fuller breasts that make you feel good about yourself. Well, maybe one - money.

For all the good breast implants can do for a woman's self-esteem, they can really hurt the wallet. For the entire breast enhancement procedure, including the implants, anesthesia, hospital fees, etc., the cost averages about $7,000. Depending on where you live and the kind of surgeons in your area, you could end up paying as little as $5,000 or as much as $10,000. That's a lot of cash for anyone! So, what are your options when it comes to paying for breast enhancement surgery?

* Savings: If increasing your bust size isn't an urgent desire, you can set aside funds until you've raised enough to pay for the procedure, or at least part of it. This of course, is the best way to go because you pay up-front and it's over and done with. No interest fees or monthly payments to worry about.

* Bank Loans: If it isn't realistic to hope that you can wait long enough until you've saved up that much money, getting a bank loan to finance the procedure is an option. Many financial institutions now have specialized loans that cover cosmetic procedures. The key is to shop around and get the best rate before committing to any one bank. If your bank doesn't offer these specialized loans, there are also personal loans and lines of credit you could apply for to pay for the procedure.

* Clinic Payment Plan: Many cosmetic surgery clinics also offer their own financing and payment plan options. Again, compare what they offer to the loan you have independently researched. Go with the best rate and terms and conditions.

* Insurance: For some breast augmentation procedures, insurance will cover all or a portion of the cost. Check with your insurance provider if the implants are part of reconstructive surgery. For breast cancer patients who've had a mastectomy, breast implants are often a part of the recovery and healing process.

Another candidate for an insurance-covered procedure is someone who has been disfigured in an accident or from a birth defect. If the enlargement surgery is simply for cosmetic reasons, insurance will not pay. If you have any doubts, it never hurts to check.

When you are comparing prices of surgery in your area, don't go with the bargain basement price or the most expensive. This is surgery and you don't want to go in with a coupon, right? Its possible that the cheaper doctor may be also the better surgeon. So do your homework. Talk to former patients and see what they have to say. Make sure the plastic surgeon is board certified and licensed. Even better, find out if he specializes in breast augmentation. At the very least, find out how many he has done and look at before and after photos.

Weigh all your breast surgery financing options and choose the best one for your situation. Breast implants are supposed to make you feel better about yourself and improve your confidence. If you are constantly worrying about money as a result, well then was it really worth it? Be smart about your financing so you can enjoy the results.

Our Savannah plastic surgeons at Coastal Empire Plastic Surgery perform popular breast cosmetic surgery procedures to help you obtain the look you hope for. Learn more about the breast enhancement procedures they offer.

Breast Augmentation Vs Breast Lift

There they are, out front for all to see, shrunken, sagging or just flopping around. They were your pride and joy in your twenties and their shape now feels like a betrayal. Pregnancy, weight loss, age and gravity have taken a toll on the shape and size of your breasts.

You're forced to buy super support bras, water bras and underwire - you wear a support bra even to bed, just to tame their unruliness. You start thinking that maybe you should have some kind of cosmetic surgery to put them in their place permanently, but you're not sure what you need.

Should you get implants with breast augmentation surgery or just a breast lift? Looking in the mirror, you're thinking you might need both. So, what is the difference between the two procedures and how do you know what you need?

Breast augmentation is used to increase the size or fill empty space left by breast tissue loss. It involves placing implants in the body to increase the size of the breasts. A breast lift raises sagging breasts and puts them back in their normal position.

If you've lost a lot of tissue, say from weight loss or pregnancy, your bust size actually shrinks. You may be smaller than you ever have been. Your breasts will also have a tendency to sag, because they have been stretched out and then shrunk.

If you haven't lost any tissue or fat, but notice they are no longer high and perky, it means gravity is taking over. Again this is fixable. A breast lift is just that - it pulls everything up to where it is supposed to be.

An implant, either saline or silicone, fills the space left by the fat loss, and also perks the area up a bit. Your surgeon can place the implant so that it has a natural seat on the chest. Your surgeon will make an incision around the nipple and under the breast, remove excess tissue and pull the skin taut and back into the normal position.

Often, both procedures are used to correct severe sagging and fat loss, and it is not unusual for both procedures to be performed at the same time. This is especially true if you have had extreme weight loss or multiple pregnancies.

In these cases, fat tissue will be lost and everything has been stretched a great deal. This leaves behind severe sagging as well as shrinkage. Your surgeon will lift the area and then insert the implants, to give you the desired look and size you want.

The best thing to do is to seek out a board certified and licensed plastic surgeon with a lot of experience in breast enhancement procedures. During your consultation, he will evaluate your body and determine exactly what you need, to get the look you want.

Have him show you before and after pictures of a breast augmentation, a breast lift and then both. This will also help you determine what you need and what to expect. For whatever reason, your body has changed, but you don't have to just accept it. Take action now and get your breasts back in shape.

The Future of Cosmetic Injectable Fillers

The current popularity of injectable treatments is based on placing synthetically-derived compounds and drugs into and under our skin. At best, these are well tolerated agents that create their effect and then are gone after a relatively short period of time. The future of injectable cosmetic treatments will likely be somewhat different. And we are getting a glimpse of that potential paradigm shift right now.

Spurred by the discovery in the 1990s that fat contains a rich supply of cells similar to the stem cells found in bone marrow, developments and techniques to use stem cells from fat for injectable cosmetic and reconstructive procedures is being worked on around the world. A stem cell is a cell from which other types of cells develop and they lie in a resting state amidst many of our tissues. Fat has proven to be a rich source of stem cell populations. The theory behind this new injectable approach is that fat may be processed or handled in a way that allows the stem cells to create a blood supply for the transplant that helps the fat survive after injection. Or perhaps have the stem cells convert after injection into fat cells to replace those regular fat cells which did not survive the transfer process. During a single operation, fat is obtained by liposuction from the stomach or thigh for example and then processed using a special technique.. The 'treated' fat is then injected into the desired area. Because the patient is the donor, there is no risk of tissue rejection. This concept is being used in other parts of the world right now for breast augmentation and small breast reconstructions. I currently use a similar approach for my fat injections for cosmetic facial improvements and for those patients who desire buttock augmentation with fat grafts rather than a synthetic implant.

Botox® and synthetic injectable fillers are here to stay and will be the backbone of office and non-invasive cosmetic treatments of the face for years to come. The use of one's own fat remains theoretically appealing, however, and current research suggests that it will ultimately have a slice in the injectable 'pie' in the near future. Because it involves more effort and costs, it role will always be more limited than off-the-shelf products. But its rich source of stem cells and its lack of any rejection issues makes fat a filler material worth working on.

Dr Barry Eppley is a board-certified plastic surgeon in private practice in Indianapolis, Indiana at Clarian Health Systems. (http://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com) He writes a daily blog on plastic surgery, spa therapies, and medical skin care at http://www.exploreplasticsurgery.com