Should Your New Year’s Resolution Include Plastic Surgery?

New Year’s Resolutions are a funny thing. Some people will wait until New Year’s Day to announce their resolutions, while other people might start making preparations for their own New Year’s Resolution in June. It all depends on the person and on the resolution (after all, some New Year’s resolution take a little more planning than others). But should your New Year’s Resolution include plastic surgery?

Should My New Year’s Resolution Include Plastic Surgery?

The short answer is that it’s certainly a possibility! However, it’s important to emphasize that most patients who use plastic surgery to achieve a New Year’s Resolution are also meeting other, long term goals. The plastic surgery itself is done in a thoughtful and intentional way, with an eye on long term transformations.

In other words, yes, patients can and often do use plastic surgery to meet their New Year’s Resolutions, but they do so in a way that meets the same standards as any plastic surgery decision. Transformations large and small, subtle and bold are possible depending on the procedure and the patient’s desired outcome. Should your New Year’s Resolution include plastic surgery? Maybe–it all depends. That’s why we’re going to look at some instances in which New Year’s Resolutions and plastic surgery go well together to create fantastic outcomes.

What is the Purpose of a New Year’s Resolution?

It might help if we start back with the initial premise of this topic: New Year’s Resolutions. For those of you who don’t know, a New Year’s Resolution is, essentially, a goal that you make for yourself. People usually create this goal around the turn of the new year (hence the name), and it usually but not always involves some sort of significant life change.

At least, that’s the plan. The funny thing about New Year’s Resolutions is that they are a notoriously unreliable motivator. Most people, in fact, end up failing at their resolutions. Which means those resolutions tend to generate a wide range of emotions, from hopefulness and determination, to fear and foreboding.

The most common New Year’s Resolutions involve diet and exercise. People will often resolve to exercise more or to diet more strictly. The goal of these activities is usually to refine the body in some way: to lose weight or add muscle. Study after study has shown that people often have more success achieving these goals when they are incorporated into an overall lifestyle change rather than sought out with a New Year’s Resolution.

When Does Plastic Surgery Enter the Mix?

Whether you’ve been trying to lose ten pounds for ten years or this is your very first New Year’s Resolution, one of the reasons why success is not always guaranteed is because you only have so much control over your body.

Fat, especially, can have a tendency to stubbornly stick around, even when you don’t want it to–ignoring all of your diet and exercise-based attempts to eliminate it. These stubborn areas of fat can show up anywhere, really, and they can be exceptionally frustrating.

And this shows one of the best cases in which to use plastic surgery to help you achieve your New Year’s Resolution. As with any plastic surgery procedure, Dr. Polsen and his staff here at South Shore Plastic Surgery will be looking to make sure that plastic surgery candidates meet certain criteria for any procedure to meet a New Year’s Resolution goal:

• The “resolution” is part of a long term goal, which the patient has had for some time
• The patient is generally healthy enough for surgery
• The patient has a clear idea of what to expect from surgery
• The “resolution” has been approached in a thoughtful and conscientious way
• the patient has a desire to undergo plastic or cosmetic surgery

It’s incredibly important that patients have a strong desire to undergo plastic or cosmetic surgery. If you want to discuss your options with Dr. Polsen, contact our offices to schedule a confidential consultation.

Procedures Common for “New Year’s Resolution” Plastic Surgery

Patients who use plastic surgery to achieve a “New Year’s Resolution” are, in most cases, also likely using the surgery to address something that has been a long source of discomfort. That’s why there are definitely some procedures that are popular year after year. Those procedures might include:

• Liposuction: This body contouring procedure can eliminate stubborn areas of fat. Dr. Polsen uses a liposculpting technique to ensure your results contour seamlessly with the rest of your body.
• Tummy Tuck: Sometimes your body just develops a bit of excess skin, especially around the tummy. No amount of diet or exercise can mitigate this type of excess skin, so many patients opt instead for a tummy tuck to achieve a slender-looking belly.
• Mommy Makeover: A procedures that is usually aimed to address problem areas created by motherhood and pregnancy, Mommy Makeover is a popular choice for New Year’s Resolution inspired plastic surgery. This procedure typically combines tummy tuck, liposuction, and breast lift, but the specific procedures are always up to you and your plastic surgeon.

There are other procedures that are often employed in helping patients reach their New Year’s Resolutions, so if you have questions about what’s available, don’t hesitate to contact us and ask our staff.

Using a plastic surgery procedure to help you meet your New Year’s Resolution goals is possible, but it can also be tricky. That’s why it’s best to proceed with thoughtfulness and with caution. If you want to know more about how Dr. Polsen can help you meet your New Year’s Resolution goals, contact us today to schedule a consultation.