By plastic surgeon Dr Dirk Kremer. 

Plastic surgery brings many emotional and physical changes, both before and after the procedure has taken place.

It’s perfectly natural for a patient to experience many ups and downs during their personal plastic surgery journey, so I feel it’s important for those who are considering plastic surgery or who have a procedure date lined up to be prepared for what may be to come.

The emotions you experience at various times and may feel you have little to no control over could range from excitement and joy to fear or regret, even depression, and all that’s in between.

Although it is your body or face that will be undergoing the physical transformation, your mind will also be taken on its own rollercoaster.

Your feelings pre-surgery

Once you have a date for your surgery, you’re likely to flutter between excited and nervous until the day finally arrives.

You’ll be excited at the prospect of finally addressing a part of your body or face that you’ve been self-conscious about for such a long time. This will finally have you feeling much better about your appearance, and that is a clear cause for you to feel excited about the future you have after the procedure.

On the other hand, it’s also natural to feel nervous as you may have concerns about something going wrong, or about not feeling as happy with the final result as you had hoped. You may also be worried about having to go through the recovery process.

It’s perfectly normal to have nervous doubts about the surgery, especially on the day of the surgery and in the days leading up. You can talk through your concerns with those closest to you, do activities that will keep your mind away from it, or recall the conversations you had with your plastic surgeon during your consultations in an attempt to put yourself at ease.

Read: 5 questions to ask yourself before plastic surgery

The post-surgery recovery

Immediately after the surgery patients are likely to feel some level of pain and discomfort, depending on the procedure. While this won’t be the nicest of experiences, it is often accompanied with a sense of relief in knowing that the surgery is now over, they have safely made it through, and can now have an eye firmly on making a full recovery.

With certain procedures the first week or two can be extremely difficult, leaving patients telling themselves that they’ll never go through with something like this again. Nausea, pain, swelling and inflammation makes this time easily the most difficult of the recovery period. Complications with the procedure can further exasperate the difficulty and the length of time the patient feels down, though for the vast majority there are no complications, and the difficult first few weeks quickly pass by with consistent gradual improvement.

Furthermore, it’s easy for patients to feel disappointed at the results they see as they nit-pick, but it’s important to understand that this is certainly not the finished result at this stage and as the body repairs and recover things can continue to drastically improve.

Read: How will you feel after plastic surgery?

Several months after surgery

Once those first couple of weeks and months have passed by patients typically feel far happier with things. Normality has pretty much fully resumed in their lives and the pain has now subsided and the swelling has significantly reduced.

This is the time when the results can begin to be appreciated, though it can still take many more months for certain procedures before the results are finalised.

Patients often begin to feel so good about themselves that those feelings of “never again” may even be replaced with ideas for additional procedures.

So, it just goes to show - plastic surgery is often a rollercoaster of a journey, but the vast majority of times there is a very happy ending.

Are you considering a plastic surgery procedure? If so, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me here at Harley Street Aesthetics in the heart of London so that we can book you in for a consultation and discuss your options in more detail. You can contact me by calling 0845 519 7232, e-mailing info@harleystreetaesthetics.com or by completing the online contact form.