Cosmetic Surgery Buddies Seeing Doctors Together

A new trend has developed among women considering breast augmentation and reduction surgeries, as well as those wanting support and advice during other plastic surgery. They both visit the doctor together, according to a New York Times story out this weekend.

Patients are visiting the office of their plastic surgeon in pairs and even groups of three. Doctors are handling these visits differently, depending on their own office established policies by billing each person separately, while seeing them at the same time. Some claim to attend the appointment of a friend just to lend moral support but then ask the doctor for advice while in the examination room with their pals.

Some plastic surgeons are insisting on separating the confidants to avoid becoming distracted or confusing the friends when advice for one is taken as advice for the other. One case, discussed in the Times article, was unlikely to confuse anyone, but did create a joke between the two women seeing a California Plastic Surgeon:

“We’re seeing more of the sympathetic buddy,” said Dr. W. Grant Stevens, the medical director of Marina Plastic Surgery Associates in Marina del Rey, Calif. “I think over all there is more curiosity about plastic surgery in general. The buddy may have his or her own curiosity. It is a nonthreatening way for the buddy to have the plastic surgery experience.”

In certain situations and with appropriate behavior from friends, the buddy can ease the fear and tension of consultations, as happened when two women entered Dr. Stevens’s office together, all giggles.

“One wanted a breast reduction and one wanted a breast augmentation,” Dr. Stevens recalled, “and of course the joke was, ‘Can you take them off of her and put them on me?’ It breaks the ice a little bit.”