“I see patients who come in for a consultation without any intention of booking, but rather to learn about the procedure, the recovery times, and the cost of the surgery, so that they can start saving up for it.” That is how Dr. Frank Agullo describes a patient he meets more and more often at Southwest Plastic Surgery, and it is a real change from a few years ago.
Before, he says, patients used to come in ready to book and asking for the next available date, using credit for the payments or financing. It has definitely changed over the last five years, and the practice has built its consultations around helping patients plan well.
Why Patients Are Planning
Some patients simply want to avoid credit debt, so they bypass financing or paying with their credit cards. Even when they may have an earlier timeline, maybe within a year, they prefer to save once they learn the cost and pay it off before surgery. Some of them actually start making payments directly at the clinic, without any interest, before they have their procedure.
Dr. Agullo also sees patients in their early twenties and thirties planning years ahead, and patients in their forties and fifties thinking about a facelift or facial rejuvenation procedure in three to five years.
The Two Buckets of Aesthetic Cost
The planning makes sense because aesthetic treatments fall into two buckets.
The first bucket is the treatments performed routinely, like botulinum toxin every four months, fillers every year or every two years, facials every one or two months, and skin tightening procedures once or twice a year. These are expenses patients have already learned and can foresee.
The other bucket is the surgical procedures, which obviously have a larger sticker price and do require financial planning, whether it’s done beforehand or by budgeting for payments afterwards.
| Bucket | Examples | Cadence | Planning Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine | Botulinum toxin, fillers, facials, skin tightening | Monthly to yearly | Predictable, budgeted |
| Surgical | Facelift, breast lift or augmentation, tummy tuck, BBL | One-time | Save ahead or interest-free in-house payments |
The Patients Who Plan Make Better Choices
Dr. Agullo is clear that the patients who plan ahead make better decisions and choices, rather than looking for the latest bargain or deal. They look for the most qualified surgeons, they look for board-certified plastic surgeons, and they do their research. Although these providers are often on the more expensive side, the planners budget for that expense and that quality.
The patients who haven’t planned tend to look for the least expensive option, which sometimes is a non-board-certified provider, or they choose to travel abroad. Those are the patients who usually run into trouble or complications. At Southwest Plastic Surgery, planning is encouraged precisely because it leads to safer choices.
The GLP-1 Effect
This trend has become more evident with the GLP-1s, like Ozempic, or semaglutide-like treatments. These patients see a quick weight loss, which a lot of times transforms into accelerated aging and changes in their body contour. As they see this, they start to plan ahead toward when they will achieve their weight loss goal.
While they get some treatments to slow the changes and restore some of the lost volume, they plan toward more long-lasting and effective solutions like facelifts, breast lifts or augmentations, tummy tucks, buttock lifts, or even Brazilian butt lifts. Dr. Agullo notes these patients range from twenty-year-olds to patients in their sixties and seventies. There is not one age-specific sector in the GLP-1 population. Recovery from any surgical step is supported through ElixirMD and the practice’s recovery program.
About Dr. Frank Agullo
Dr. Frank Agullo is the founder of Southwest Plastic Surgery in El Paso, Texas. He is double board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and completed a plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years.
Ready to Talk?
If you want to plan and save rather than book on the spot, that is welcome at Southwest Plastic Surgery. Come learn the procedure, the recovery, and the real cost, and ask about interest-free in-house payments.
For the surgeon’s editorial take on the shift, see Dr. Agullo’s essay on drworldwide.com. For the clinical patient guide, see the companion post on agulloplasticsurgery.com.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at swplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful.
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
