Mental Health and Plastic Surgery |
Dr. Xiaoti Xu, Plastic Surgeon, Mia Aesthetics with West Kendall Baptist Hospital, says being mentally prepared makes you a much happier patient. “I think when the patient doesn’t know mentally what to expect, their recovery will be a lot harder.”
He explains there are lots of psychological diseases, one of them is body dysmorphia, where the patient is never satisfied and wants tons of surgeries, and that is a red flag in a patient to look for.
Transcript
Now in the process of preparing for your cosmetic surgery one important factor that you also have to consider is mental preparedness and that means educating yourself and preparing your mind and you want to think about what the surgery is and what to expect from it now would you agree with that is that something that you fully disclose with your patients as well that this is something that you need to be ready for well totally and I think me mentally prepared for not only the surgery the pain associated as well as the result makes you a much happier and prepared patient I think when the patient doesn’t know mentally what to expect their recovery is probably gonna be a lot harder and probably be unsatisfied over their results as well and one things that you also mentioned is having not just physically but mentally emotionally ready I mean do you have to know that they’re going in there for the right reasons for sure exactly there’s lots of psychological diseases one the mostess body it’s morphic syndrome where it’s a red flag meaning the patient’s never satisfied any kind of change they want tons of cosmetic surgery to assist the patient that we see there goes in to get procedure after procedure after procedure exactly that you know there’s something wrong that you’ll never be satisfied so that’s definitely a red flag in a patient to look for other things are if a patient’s doing something for someone else right the classic example is that oh my husband exactly our marriage is sort of in trouble and I want a breast augmentation to save us from divorce that’s you clean breasts don’t save from Derby exactly exactly where I saw bigger breasts aren’t gonna save your isn’t gonna save your man right so those are kind of things as a doctor you need to tease out and make sure that you know they’re doing it for themselves and they want augmentation not because of something or no factor exactly absolutely you