Cosmetic Surgery Patients Opting For Less In Shaky Economy

Laura Coco has been heading to Dr. Z. Paul Lorenc’s Park Avenue plastic surgery office for a number of years. But these days instead of surgery, she’s opting for less invasive, less expensive fillers due to the shaky economy.

“I decided to hold off and see how things go. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. So I decided to go with fillers, because I know that will freshen me up for at least a year, and then I can decide, get the surgery, like a year or so, as long as things are going well,” said Coco.

Dr. Lorenc said during the economic downturn, his office has definitely been seeing more patients practice a similar amount of caution.

“What we have seen is patients, for instance in the past would come in for a surgical procedure, have transitioned, some of them, not all of them, but some of them to non-surgical approaches, fillers, lower toxins. And some of the patients that have come in for fillers, lower toxins, have transitioned into even simpler procedures,” said Lorenc.

Dr. Alan Gold, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Surgery said it’s a trend that’s happening across the board.

“We have seen in a poll taken for the American Society for Aesthetic Surgery, in our members, we have seen approximately 50 percent, a little over 50 percent in our members have reported a downturn in their practices as a result of the downturn in the economy,” said Gold.

In the midst of a recession, Dr. Lorenc’s practice has implemented a fancy term for discount, they call it “compassionate pricing”.

We care about our finances, and we care about our patients finances. And if we can help someone make the decision, maybe they will not be able to have surgery today, but let’s give them something to make them feel better. By giving them a compassionate pricing program it helps them to say, maybe I can afford it,” said Lorraine Russo, Executive Director, Lorenc Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

According to Dr. Gold, the demand in the field of plastic surgery will always be there.

“When we see the economy turn around, whenever that may be, I think that you are going to see an abrupt uptick higher than what we usually see, because that is pent up demand. People will say, okay, I can’t have a surgery this year, or in this last six months. But six months to a year from now, they are still going to be interested and are still going to pursue that concept of having surgery,” said Gold.

Reposted from NY1