Many people who spend more time at home during the pandemic are dealing with renovation projects that they have been considering for years. But the decoration is not limited to the kitchen and family room.
Dr. Karol Gutowski, a board-certified plastic surgeon in the Chicago area, sees patients in Glenview, Oak Brook, and other places, and he says his clinic is “growth amazing.”
The most common surgeries are tummy tuck, liposuction, and breast augmentation, but Gutovsky said he has increased in all treatments, and the appointment time for consultation has doubled.
Gutowski said in early February: “We are not booking surgery one to two months in advance, but four months or more in advance,” for more extensive surgeries, such as “mother remodeling”.
According to Lucio Pavone, a plastic surgeon at Edwards Elmhurst Health in Elmhurst and Naperville, the number of surgeries from June to February has increased by about 20% compared to the same period in the previous year.
Doctors said that one of the reasons for the rise is that due to COVID-19, more and more people are working from home, so they can recover at home without missing work or social activities. Pavone said, for example, after the abdomen is tucked in to tighten the abdomen, the patient has a drainage tube at the incision for a week or more.
Surgery during the pandemic “will not disrupt their normal work schedule and social life because there is no social life,” Pavoni said.
Hinsdale plastic surgeon Dr. George Kouris said that “everyone wears a mask” when they go out, which helps screen for facial bruises. Kuris said that most patients need about two weeks of social rest to recover.
“But some patients are still very secretive about this,” Pavoni said. His patients did not want their children or spouses to know that they had cosmetic surgery.
Gutowski said that although his patients may not intend to conceal the fact that they have had plastic surgery, “they just don’t want to work with bruised or swollen faces.”
Gutowski said, for example, surgery to repair drooping eyelids may make the face a little swollen and puffy within 7 to 10 days.
Gutowski said that he himself “finished” his upper eyelid before stopping work. “I have needed it for about 10 years,” he said. When he knew that his clinic would be closed due to the pandemic, he asked a colleague to perform surgery on his eyelids.
From September to early February 2020, Kouris estimates that he completed these procedures 25% more than usual.
However, overall, his business did not grow over previous years because the office was closed from mid-March to May according to the state’s coronavirus mitigation plan. Currys said that even after the country allowed elective surgery again, people who were worried about contracting the virus postponed medical appointments. But as people learned about preventive measures taken by medical institutions, such as requiring patients to pass COVID-19 tests before surgery, business began to rebound.
Pavone said: “People who have jobs are still lucky. They have enough money for discretionary spending, not for vacations,” because they either can’t travel or don’t want to travel.
He said that the cost of cosmetic treatments ranged from US$750 for dermal filler injections to US$15,000 to US$20,000 for “mother makeover”, which may include breast augmentation or reduction, liposuction and abdominal wrinkles.
Doctors said that another motivation for recent plastic surgery is that more and more people are using Zoom and video conferencing. Some people don’t like the way they look on the computer screen.
“They see their faces at a different angle than they are used to,” Pavone said. “This is almost an unnatural perspective.”
Gutowski said that usually the angle of the camera on a person’s computer or tablet is too low, so this angle is very unflattering. “That’s not how they look in real life.”
He suggests that 5 to 10 minutes before an online meeting or conversation, people should place their computers and check their appearance.
Gutowski said that if you don’t like what you see, move the device up or sit further back or adjust the lighting.
Post time: Sep-08-2021