Plastic Surgery: The Necessity of Before and After Pictures

If you are getting plastic surgery, you may be planning to take your own pictures beforehand and afterward so that you can see the difference the procedure makes. However, you can also expect your surgeon to take his own photos of you before and after the operation. Find out why this practice usually occurs within the plastic surgery field.

Photos of patients are quite useful to doctors in this industry. Unlike other types of doctors, the work of a cosmetic surgeon is obvious, so when one improves a patient, it is nice to be able to show off his work. Most surgeons use photos to entice potential clients to go through them for their operation. Surgeons who have various photos of a successful rhinoplasty, for example, may end up getting a new patient interested in a nose job by keeping an album in their waiting room or online. They may also use photographs to convince patients to get a particular procedure. For example, if a patient assumes that all breast implants look fake, she may have her mind changed by a photo of natural-looking results.

Photos are also helpful in that they show the difference between before and after the plastic surgery, protecting both doctors and patients in some cases. For instance, if a patient blames a doctor for not changing her look enough, he can point to the pictures that show that he did indeed alter her appearance quite a bit. On the other hand, the pictures may come in handy for those who have a reason to be unsatisfied with the result, such as when a surgeon has made their appearance worse.

Finally, in some cases, revision surgery is necessary, such as when the surgeon either does not change the appearance much at all, or makes it worse. In such cases, patients may just want to go back to the way they looked before. While having a picture may not guarantee the exact same look, it can show the surgeon the desired results so he can get as close as possible.

Of course, one of the main reasons that many clients want before and after pictures is to show off their new look compared to the old one. Believe it or not, most doctors like this benefit as well, since they get to show off work that they are proud of. For these reasons, having before and after photographs taken is essential for both surgeons and patients.