Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

Cosmetic surgeons and patients alike worry about the cost of corrective procedures. Beautysure, the world’s first cosmic surgery insurer for patients, created a policy that would cover a patient for up to ,4,000 for any common complication. The complications included things such as capsular contracture, infections, scarring requiring surgery, and MRSA. The policy would not cover aesthetic dissatisfaction.

This insurance option was available through members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS). Juliet Bentley, founding director of Beautysure Insurance Products Ltd., commented in June of 2009, “Whether the patients take out the insurance themselves as individuals, or the surgeons choose the option
of insuring them all via one policy covering their entire practice, Beautysure can finally eliminate the worry all round of financial burdens, should complications occur.” She had high expectations for this insurance company.

Beautysure Insurance Products Ltd. was launched in March of 2009 and only eight months later it was shut down. Its parent company Lorega integrated and restructured the company. Lorega chairman Malcolm Harvey said in a press release, “It’s disappointing when a product that initially showed much promise falters. However as the demand is now proven we have spoken to our key introducers and taken swift action to restructure in order to more accurately meet their needs.”

Lorega was established in 1933 as a claims service for businesses and has an outstanding record for making the claims process easier. They hope to use their expertise to provide a higher level of service to the surgeons of BAAPS and BAPRAS. Lorega’s City of London based team will now administer all of the policies, since Juliet Bentley has moved on to a different area of insurance.

The idea of an insurance that will cover patients and surgeons for complications surgery is very good. Juliet Bentley can be applauded as a visionary for bringing the UK such a helpful service. Now it is up to Lorega to keep it afloat. Cosmetic surgery is a ,1.1 bn industry and insurance policies were well over due. With these
insurance policies both surgeons and patients can be confident that if complications arise then the resulting care will be covered. This insurance policy should make more people comfortable with having a cosmetic procedure done because their fears of extra costs due to complications will be assuaged.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) reported over 36,000 procedures in 2009. This is nearly a seven percent increase over 2008. The organization is a not-for-profit group that was established for the advancement of education and practice of aesthetic plastic surgery for the patients benefit. They have a strict set of rules and regulations that members must follow. There are surgeons who perform cosmetic surgeries in the UK, who are not members of the BAAPS. Some of these surgeons are not regulated and BAAPS is calling on the government to change that.

There was a One Show episode that focused on cosmetic surgery. It revealed that there were a lot of false PR claims and corrupt practices performed by plastic surgeons, and that there is no regulation preventing it. In the article ‘Minimizing Risk in Aesthetic Surgery’ Foad Nahai, of the International Society of Aesthetic
Plastic Surgeons, said, “Regulations governing the training of all cosmetic surgeons are sorely needed. Governments are reluctant to become involved, as they see this issue as a dispute between various physician groups and not a public safety issue.”

BAAPS’s Nigel Mercer could not disagree more with this reluctance. He believes that regulation of the cosmetic surgery field is a matter of public safety and thus should be taken on by the government. In a paper titled ‘Clinical Risk in Aesthetic Surgery’ he said , “There has been a massive increase in ‘marketing’, including discount vouchers, 2-for-one offers and holidays with surgery. In no other area of medicine is there such an un-regulated mess. What is worse is that the national governments would not allow it to happen in other areas of medicine. Imagine a ’2-for-1′ advert for general surgery? That way lies madness.”

France has instituted regulations and guidelines that must be followed by their plastic surgeons. In ‘France Sets Standards for Practice of Aesthetic Surgery’ a French surgeon lists some of these regulations as: -surgical procedures can only be undertaken by surgeons who are registered specialists and deemed competent -neither possession of a general medical degree nor that the practitioner is experienced are sufficient qualifications -a ban on all forms and methods of publicity and advertising, direct or indirect, in
whatever form, including the internet.

Many people believe that regulations similar to these should be implemented in the UK. The law in the UK presently says that , as long as the patients gives permission for the procedure than that surgeon can perform it, whether they are qualified or not. The BAAPS believes that this is unacceptable. Mr. Mercer said, “We have seen what a lack of regulation has done for banks and for the British parliament. There is a British Potato Council so why not an OFFCos [official cosmetic surgery regulator]? Surgeons can do more harm than potatoes….!”

New research which has recently been revealed to the world is forcing plastic and cosmetic surgeons to throw out their old assumptions on how the human face ages and thus what the best types of treatments to fight back can be. 

Apparently, our face are made up of different fat compartments and these different compartments individually change with age and so how we are affected by the ageing process and which parts of our bodies are affected depends on how each of these fat compartments changes over time. Wow, you really do learn something new every day!

The lead author of the study which has revealed this new information, Dr. Joel Pessa, has spoken out about the new findings, saying that: “Contrary to popular belief, the human face does not age uniformly. We thought facial fat was one confluent mass that eventually got weighed down by gravity, creating sagging skin. However, we were shocked to find not only is the face made up of individual fat compartments but these compartments gain and lose fat at different rates.” Thus, all our old assumptions about how to keep our faces looking young and gravity-defying have to be completely reconsidered.  What the study does mean, at a base level for people like you and me who might be considering facial surgery is that certain areas which cause us trouble can now be pinpointed and treated more directly.  Injectable fillers will be able to be used on specific compartments of fat on the face and thus a more natural and effective way of fighting back against the ageing process will be achieved. This will be greeted well on both sides of the Atlantic, as the non-invasive surgery business is one of the biggest sections of the cosmetic and plastic surgery industry.  “This discovery will undoubtedly play a role in how we view aging and how we approach facial reconstructive plastic surgery.” confirmed Dr. Pessa.

The study could have further reaching consequences as well, with reports saying that it could even have reconstructive benefits for cancer or trauma patients. Facial disfigurements such as cleft lips may also be able to be approached differently. It would seem this breakthrough is going to be used in many different areas of surgery and will ultimately benefit and enormous number of people. In the near future though, it will help to fight back against the ageing process.

We have always known that the U.S was the epicentre of the plastic and cosmetic surgery industries. Home to Hollywood, a country where everything is bigger and done on a much grander scale, America has now been revealed to be the place where plastic surgery is king.

New figures have shown that, in the year of 2008, a staggering 10 million procedures were performed on patients!  This is a stunning figure and is really testament to the wonderful work which plastic and cosmetic surgeons are doing up and down the country but also shows how much the industry has grown in recent years. Who knows what the 2009 figure will look like; well whatever it looks like, we assume the figure will be trim and toned!

The American Society for Aesthetic  Plastic Surgery is the body behind these exciting figures and they have also released some other numbers for us to sink our perfectly-veneered teeth into as well. Liposuction had long been the most popular surgery amongst women in the United States of America but this is no longer the case. It was beaten to the top spot in 2008 by breast augmentation surgeries which now have the esteemed accolade of being the most popular surgery amongst women.  Liposuction had to make do with second place; this marks an interesting shift in the types of treatments which patients are undergoing- perhaps having already attained good figures via liposuction they are now turning to the perfect pair of breasts as well.  The race was still quite tight though, so 2009 could see a photo-finish between the two surgeries as liposuction and breast augmentations fight it out for the top spot. The figures show that 355,671 breast augmentations were performed in the U.S in 2008, whilst the figure stands at 309,692 for liposuction procedures.  What these figures also prove is that a huge number of other surgeries, more than nine million, are taking place and that these must thus be spread over a huge number of varied procedures.

It’s not all bad news for liposuction though; it did stay the top procedure amongst men, with over 31,000 procedures being performed. Breast augmentations, however, remain the most popular surgery in Britain as well: there was a 30% rise in the number of them done in Britain in 2008! So it seems on both sides of the Atlantic that surgery is most definitely in!

In times gone by flamboyant, gushing gowns could hide any excess weight that might be stubbornly clinging to the bride-to-be wearer but changes in fashion mean that there are now not so many ruffles and plumages to hide behind.

This could be one of the reasons behind the rise in brides going under the knife before they walk down the aisle.  One company said it had already received a staggering 400 enquiries about plastic surgery for weddings since the beginning of the year! Interestingly, it’s not just lipo that these fabulous brides are wanting; they want breast enlargements as well so they can fill the tighter, less forgiving gowns which are now on the market.

The owner of the Mirror, Mirror bridal boutiques in London, Maria Yainnikaris, has commented how she has noticed a trend in women saying: “I need to wait for my fitting”. These same women then return with “very high and firm breasts”.  The catwalk has been seen as partly to blame, wedding couture is now big business and the current trend for slimmer, ‘body-con’ dresses is what the public is spending its money on.  Traditional wedding dresses were designed to be an un-sexual as possible, sexuality and the idea of the virginal bride were seen as clashing ideas.  Now however, the mounds of fabric and frills have gone the way of the virginal bride and now it’s all about the sexy, slim bride.  The manager of The Wedding Dress Shop, in Wimbledon, commented on the trend saying that: “…the trend is now influenced by delicate, fluid styles with lots of lace, thin spaghetti straps and no structure at all. There is one dress in particular that is impossible to wear without a perfect pair of breasts or a breast augmentation or lift. The dress has back cross-over straps so a bra is completely out of the question.”

However, surgeons cannot work miracles. Indeed, one leading practitioner has commented on this issue. He said that he had seen a rush of women who begin to panic as their big day approaches and thus come to demand unrealistic and unhealthy turnaround times. These women are being turned away and told that their expectations are simply too unrealistic. Looking fabulous on your big day is important, but so is feeling fabulous and you don’t want to have to run straight from the hospital bed to walk down the aisle!