“Patients are taking advantage of being under anesthesia during their surgical procedure and elect to have Botox, fillers and laser treatments performed at the same time,” says New York plastic surgeon Jeffrey S. Yager, MD. “Having these minor procedures does not warrant anesthesia in the usual case, but if you are having a cosmetic surgery anyway, it is a nice way to feel absolutely nothing.”
Westborough, MA plastic surgeon Min S. Ahn, MD says he’s been seeing a lot of this as “post-quarantine has emerged as the perfect time to have procedures and surgeries.” However, that doesn’t mean patients can cross all their treatment to-do’s off their list in one visit.
“It is generally recommended that elective procedures should be limited to less than 6 hours, but that is not a rigid rule,” says La Jolla, CA plastic surgeon Robert Singer, MD. According to a recent study, your risk for fever, pneumonia and heart attack goes up between 18 and 36 percent for each hour that you’re under anesthesia after that safe 6 hours.
Along with ensuring a proper surgery time for ultimate safety, Dr. Ahn follows one very specific guideline when it comes to adding a nonsurgical treatment onto a more invasive surgery.
“I don’t recommend Botox or fillers with surgery when the surgical site swelling might diffuse the Botox or cause swelling that would be retained by the filler,” he says. “For example, if a patient is having a lower blepharoplasty to treat extra skin and puffiness but also has a hollow that could be treated with filler, I recommend delaying the filler until all the swelling from the more invasive procedure has resolved.”
Although he’s in-tune with proper regulation, Dr. Ahn has a few favorite procedures that can make the end result of a surgery that much better. “I like to perform Fraxel Dual laser on the face and Morpheus radio-frequency skin tightening of the neck alongside a mini facelift and neck lift.”
West Orange, NJ plastic surgeon Mokhtar Asaadi, MD also has a few popular procedures that he often performs while the patient is already under anesthesia for a more invasive procedure. “Fat grafting is done in almost all of my facelift cases and sometimes I do fillers and Botox or laser resurfacing at the same time.”
However, when fillers and Botox Cosmetic are done in conjunction with other surgical procedures, “precise planning and execution is absolutely needed” so the patient doesn’t wake up surprised with the result. “These nonsurgical procedures should be done according to the patient’s anatomy and how much improvement they want,” Dr. Asaadi adds. It’s also important that the patient has given consent and they go into the surgery with full knowledge of the pros and cons.
