Through cosmetic surgery, patients may refine the shape, proportions, or appearance of their face or body. A person may also feel more at ease with a long-standing appearance concern after cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery may offer benefits, but no operation is entirely predictable. Understanding the risks of cosmetic surgery is an important part of deciding whether a procedure is right for you.
Although most patients heal without serious problems, no surgeon can guarantee perfection or eliminate every surgical risk. Problems can occur because of anesthesia, bleeding, infection, poor healing, an unexpected reaction, or the way the body responds to surgery. Some complications are temporary and easy to treat. Others may require medication, hospital care, revision surgery, or long-term follow-up.
Patients in Canada should receive clear information about the expected benefits, material risks, alternatives, recovery requirements, and possible consequences of not having treatment. A thorough consultation should provide enough time to review the information and make a decision without pressure. Cosmetic surgery is usually elective, so you should feel comfortable delaying or declining it when the risks outweigh the likely benefits.
What Risks Can Cosmetic Surgery Involve?
The risks of cosmetic surgery include unwanted outcomes that affect health, physical function, or appearance. The type and level of risk depend on the procedure, the surgical technique, the area being treated, the length of the operation, the form of anesthesia, and the patient's overall health.
Many cosmetic procedures are followed by mild expected side effects. Swelling, bruising, soreness, numbness, tightness, fatigue, and mild drainage may be normal during early healing. A true complication is not the same as an expected side effect. A complication extends beyond normal recovery and may need medical care.
Plastic surgery complications may include the following:
- A hematoma, which is a collection of blood, or other excessive bleeding
- Infection at the incision or within deeper tissue
- A collection of fluid called a seroma
- Blood clots in the legs or lungs
- Slow wound healing or separation of the incision
- Visible scarring that may be thick, widened, raised, or irregular
- Nerve injury, numbness, or altered sensation
- Loss of skin, fat, or other tissue because of reduced circulation
- Reactions to anesthesia, medications, adhesives, or surgical materials
- Aesthetic concerns such as asymmetry, poor contours, or an unwanted result
- Changes in function, such as breathing, movement, or sensation
- Additional medical treatment or a revision operation
Serious complications are uncommon, but they are still important to discuss. Possible rare complications include severe infection, major hemorrhage, organ damage, heart problems, stroke, a blood clot in the lungs, permanent impairment, and death.
Expected Short-Term Effects of Cosmetic Surgery
Normal recovery often includes temporary discomfort and changes in appearance or sensation. Patients who understand expected recovery are better able to separate routine symptoms from possible complications.
Soreness After Cosmetic Surgery
Each patient experiences pain differently, and some operations cause more discomfort than others. Patients may notice aching, tightness, burning, or tenderness around the treated area. Discomfort is normally expected to improve gradually during healing. Patients should quickly report severe or spreading pain, especially when it is accompanied by fever, redness, shortness of breath, or unusual swelling.
Bruising and Tissue Swelling
Swelling is caused by inflammation and fluid moving into the treated tissues. It may hide the initial surgical result for weeks or months. Bruises form when tiny blood vessels are damaged and blood collects beneath the skin. Facial procedures, liposuction, breast surgery, and body contouring can all cause visible swelling and bruising.
Patients should not judge the final result too early. Residual swelling can change shape, symmetry, and skin texture during recovery.
Altered Sensation and Numbness
During an operation, small nerves responsible for sensation may be stretched, repositioned, or divided. Some procedures commonly cause short-term numbness, tingling, increased sensitivity, or a decrease in feeling. Feeling frequently returns as the nerves heal, although full recovery is not certain. Permanent sensory changes are possible.
Short-Term Activity Restrictions
Patients may need help with transportation, meals, child care, pet care, household work, and personal tasks. Restrictions may apply to driving, physical activity, lifting, swimming, and work. Swelling, bleeding, incision issues, and additional complications may become more likely when recovery limits are ignored.
Medical and Surgical Risks
Postoperative Bleeding and Hematoma
A small amount of bleeding may occur around an incision. Heavier bleeding may create a hematoma, a pocket of blood beneath the skin or within the treated area. Increasing tenderness, firmness, swelling, discolouration, or an abrupt difference between two sides may indicate a hematoma.
A small hematoma may only need monitoring, but a larger one may require drainage. A return to the operating room may be necessary in more serious cases.
Infection After Cosmetic Surgery
An infection can develop in the skin, incision, tissue, or around an implant. Possible signs include increasing redness, warmth, swelling, pus-like drainage, worsening pain, fever, chills, or an unpleasant smell.
Treatment may involve antibiotics, wound care, drainage, or another operation. An infected breast implant or other medical device may need to be removed. Infection risk and treatment difficulty may increase with smoking, poorly controlled diabetes, inadequate nutrition, or reduced circulation.
Fluid Buildup or Seroma
A seroma develops when a pocket of clear fluid forms under the surgical tissues. Seromas occur more often after operations that leave a broad space under the tissue, including tummy tuck surgery, body lifts, breast procedures, and extensive liposuction.
A minor fluid collection can sometimes disappear as the body reabsorbs it. Larger ones may need to be drained, sometimes more than once. A persistent seroma can create pressure, interfere with wound healing, and increase the chance of infection.
Blood Clots and Pulmonary Embolism
Deep vein thrombosis, known as DVT, develops when a clot forms in one of the body's deep veins, usually in a leg. If part of the clot travels to the lungs, it can cause a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism requires emergency medical care.
Risk may increase with long operations, limited movement, previous blood clots, certain medications, nicotine use, obesity, some medical conditions, and combining multiple procedures. Risk-reduction measures can include early movement, compression devices, supportive garments, adequate fluids, and anticoagulant medication when medically suitable.
Problems With Incision Healing
An incision may heal slowly or begin to separate. Healing may be impaired by poor circulation, infection, pressure on the incision, nicotine, some medicines, or underlying health conditions.
Incision problems may need wound care, antibiotics, surgical cleaning, or further corrective surgery. Healing by secondary intention means allowing an open area to close gradually from the inside outward. This process can take longer and may leave a more visible scar.
Skin or Tissue Necrosis
Necrosis means that skin, fat, or another tissue does not receive enough blood and begins to die. This complication can occur after procedures that lift, tighten, or reposition large sections of tissue. Nicotine exposure is an important avoidable risk because it constricts blood vessels and limits oxygen reaching the tissues.
Treatment depends on the amount of tissue affected. Care may require dressings, surgical removal of damaged tissue, skin grafting, reconstruction, or delayed corrective surgery.
Anesthesia Risks in Cosmetic Surgery
Cosmetic procedures may be performed with local anesthesia, sedation, general anesthesia, or a combination of these methods. The most suitable anesthesia plan is based on the type of surgery, patient health history, procedure duration, and location where surgery takes place.
Anesthesia may be associated with the following risks:
- Feeling sick or vomiting after anesthesia
- Dizziness, confusion, or prolonged drowsiness
- Headache or sore throat
- Unexpected reactions to anesthetic or other medications
- Changes in blood pressure or heart rhythm
- Breathing difficulties
- Aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs
- Damage to teeth, lips, or the airway
- Severe cardiac, respiratory, or neurological problems
Before surgery, patients should disclose all prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, supplements, cannabis products, alcohol use, nicotine use, allergies, past anesthesia reactions, and relevant medical conditions. Withholding medical or lifestyle information may increase the risks of anesthesia and surgery.
Scarring and Changes to the Skin
Any procedure that cuts the skin creates a scar. Incisions are often positioned in natural creases, along hairlines, or beneath clothing, although no scar can be removed entirely.
Early scars can be firm, raised, reddish, or more deeply coloured before they mature. They may soften and fade over 12 months or longer. How a scar eventually looks is affected by heredity, skin type, wound tension, infection, ultraviolet exposure, aftercare, incision placement, and the operation performed.
Hypertrophic and Keloid Scarring
A hypertrophic scar becomes thick or raised but stays within the original wound. Unlike a hypertrophic scar, a keloid extends outside the original boundaries of the wound. A history of hypertrophic scars or keloids, whether personal or familial, should be discussed before an operation.
Possible treatments include silicone products, pressure therapy, copyright injections, laser treatment, or scar revision. Scar treatment may improve texture and appearance, but it cannot ensure that a hypertrophic scar or keloid will never come back.
Skin Colour and Texture Changes
Possible skin changes after surgery include darker or lighter pigment, redness, visible vessels, dents, hardness, and uneven texture. Alterations in colour or texture may improve, but they can also remain long term. A patient's skin tone and the procedure being performed can influence the likelihood of these changes.
The Risk of an Unwanted Cosmetic Result
A technically successful operation does not always produce the appearance a patient expected. The body's response is shaped by age, anatomy, skin quality, earlier surgery, scar development, and normal side-to-side differences.
Possible aesthetic concerns include:
- Unevenness that remains after healing
- Uneven contours or visible irregularities
- A result that is under-treated or over-treated
- An artificial-looking or over-tightened outcome
- A changing contour as postoperative swelling decreases
- Implant position problems
- Scarring that is prominent or difficult to conceal
- Recurrence of sagging or tissue laxity over time
- Dissatisfaction despite an acceptable medical result
Before-and-after images, photographs, and computer simulations may help explain possibilities, but they do not promise a matching result. Anatomy and healing responses vary from one person to another.
Corrective and Revision Surgery
A corrective operation may be discussed if a complication develops or if the original result could be refined. Revision surgery carries risks of its own. A second operation may be technically harder because previous surgery can leave scar tissue, stiffness, and diminished blood flow.
It is important to ask how the practice handles revisions and which expenses are covered. The first surgical fee may not cover a revision surgeon, facility charges, anesthesia, new implants, prescriptions, travel, or lost work time.
Procedure-Specific Cosmetic Surgery Risks
General risks are present across cosmetic surgery, while individual procedures introduce additional concerns.
Facelift and Neck Lift Risks
Facelift and neck lift complications may include hematoma, facial nerve injury, hairline changes, hair loss near incisions, skin loss, contour irregularities, earlobe distortion, numbness, facial weakness, and visible scarring. Because nicotine restricts circulation, its use can greatly increase wound and skin-healing complications.
Risks of Nose Surgery
After nose surgery, patients may experience persistent swelling, nosebleeds, infection, asymmetry, smell changes, irregular contours, septal perforation, collapse of nasal support, or obstructed breathing. It can take at least a year for swelling to resolve enough for the final nasal shape to be assessed. A revision nose operation is often more challenging because the first surgery changes the cartilage and creates internal scarring.
Eyelid Surgery Risks
After blepharoplasty, patients may develop dry eyes, irritation, blurred vision, trouble shutting the eyelids, lid malposition, asymmetry, scarring, orbital bleeding, or changes in eyesight. Severe eye pain or a sudden change in vision requires urgent medical assessment.
Breast Surgery Risks
Nipple sensation, symmetry, scars, and the ability to breastfeed may be affected by breast augmentation, breast lift surgery, or breast reduction. Additional complications can include bleeding beneath the tissue, infection, fat tissue death, slow wound healing, and changes to the nipple or areola location.
Implant-based breast surgery involves long-term risks beyond the normal surgical recovery period. Long-term implant issues can include hard scar tissue, rupture, loss of volume, visible rippling, shifting, rotation, discomfort, and additional procedures. Breast implants are not designed to last for an entire lifetime. Health Canada publishes safety guidance concerning rare illnesses associated with some breast implants, including breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
Risks of Liposuction
Liposuction complications may include contour irregularities, dents, rippling, loose skin, fluid imbalance, numbness, seroma, infection, internal injury, fat embolism, and lidocaine toxicity when local anesthetic is used. Removing larger volumes of fat or treating several body areas may increase medical stress and recovery demands.
Tummy Tuck and Body Lift Risks
Tummy tuck and body lift procedures require long incisions and repositioning of broad tissue areas. Seroma, blood clots, infection, necrosis, delayed wound healing, numbness, noticeable scars, and altered belly button position may occur. Patients may need several weeks of movement restrictions.
Possible Fat Grafting Complications
During fat grafting, fat is taken from one body area and placed into a different location. Some of the transferred fat will be absorbed, which can affect volume and symmetry. Additional complications include dead fat tissue, cysts, calcification, infection, oil cysts, and fat entering a blood vessel. The safety concerns differ depending on whether fat is placed in the face, breasts, buttocks, or another area.
Who May Face Greater Cosmetic Surgery Risks?
A patient's health status and daily habits may make complications more likely. A patient may need medical testing, treatment changes, weight management, nicotine cessation, or clearance from another health professional before surgery.
Factors associated with higher surgical risk include:
- Exposure to nicotine through smoking, vaping, gum, patches, or other products
- Poorly controlled diabetes
- Cardiac, respiratory, renal, liver, or vascular conditions
- A bleeding disorder or history of blood clots
- A high body mass index or significant changes in weight
- Sleep apnea
- Immune system disorders
- Nutritional deficiencies or a low red blood cell count
- Earlier surgery or radiation therapy involving the same area
- Prescription products, non-prescription medicines, or supplements that alter bleeding and healing
- Expectations that cannot be achieved or unaddressed psychological concerns affecting consent
The presence of one or more risk factors does not automatically prevent cosmetic surgery. Instead, the surgeon must assess whether surgery is reasonably safe and determine what preparation is required.
Emotional and Mental Health Considerations
Cosmetic surgery can affect emotional health as well as physical health. During recovery, patients can become anxious or discouraged because they look swollen, feel tired, and cannot resume normal activities. A short period of sadness or emotional difficulty after surgery is sometimes known as postoperative blues.
More serious dissatisfaction can occur when expectations do not match what surgery can realistically achieve. A cosmetic procedure can modify the body, but it does not guarantee emotional confidence, relationship improvement, career advancement, or solutions to unrelated personal concerns.
The patient's motivation for considering surgery should be discussed during an appropriate assessment. Possible warning signs include outside pressure, ongoing dissatisfaction despite multiple operations, severe concern about a minor local plastic surgery feature, and unrealistic beliefs about total life transformation.
Intense and persistent concern about perceived physical defects may be a sign of body dysmorphic disorder, a recognized mental health condition. An operation may fail to resolve the deeper psychological distress. In suitable cases, the surgeon may delay treatment and advise the patient to seek mental health assessment or counselling first.
How to Reduce the Risks of Cosmetic Surgery
Although no operation can be made completely risk-free, thorough preparation can improve safety.
- Work with a properly trained physician whose practice includes the cosmetic operation you are considering.
- Confirm through your province or territory's college of physicians and surgeons that the doctor is licensed and in good standing.
- Ask where the procedure will be performed and what safety, emergency, and infection-control systems are available.
- Disclose your entire health history, including previous surgery, allergies, medications, supplements, alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use.
- Complete required testing and obey instructions about fasting, medicines, supplements, smoking, vaping, and other nicotine products.
- When needed, organize transportation and early postoperative support from a responsible adult.
- Understand the recovery timeline before booking work, travel, exercise, or major events.
- Follow-up care should not be skipped, and abnormal changes should be reported without delay.
- Do not compare your healing speed with edited images or another patient's recovery.
- Wait until healing is mature before deciding whether revision surgery is needed.
Finding a Qualified Canadian Cosmetic Surgeon
Each Canadian province and territory is responsible for regulating doctors within its jurisdiction. Patients can search the public register of the applicable college of physicians and surgeons to confirm a doctor's licence, registered specialty, and available practice information.
Canadian patients can ask if their surgeon has been certified in plastic surgery by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Certification is one useful qualification to review, but patients should also consider experience with the specific procedure, complication management, communication, surgical setting, and follow-up care.
Useful questions for a cosmetic surgery consultation include:
- What training and certification do you have?
- How often do you perform this procedure?
- Does my medical history and physical anatomy make me an appropriate candidate?
- Which problems do your patients experience most often after this operation?
- Which uncommon but severe complications need to be considered?
- Who will provide anesthesia?
- What happens if I have a complication after business hours?
- What emergency plan is in place if I need urgent medical treatment?
- How many postoperative appointments are provided as part of the surgical plan?
- Could I face extra surgeon, facility, anesthesia, medication, or revision fees?
Informed Consent for Cosmetic Surgery
Signing paperwork alone does not create true informed consent. It should be a continuing conversation that allows the patient to decide freely after receiving adequate information.
A proper consent discussion includes the procedure itself, expected improvement, significant complications, alternative options, recovery requirements, limitations, and the choice to decline treatment. Any complication that could significantly affect the patient's medical condition, employment, lifestyle, or priorities should receive special attention.
Patients should have enough time to review consent information without being pressured. Questions should be asked whenever risks, terminology, or instructions are not fully understood. Taking notes, involving a support person, and reviewing written material outside the clinic can support an informed decision.
When to Seek Help After Cosmetic Surgery
Your surgical team should provide specific instructions about when and how to seek help. Unexpected or worsening symptoms that fall outside the recovery instructions should be reported without delay.
Symptoms that may require urgent care include:
- Breathing problems, chest discomfort, bloody coughing, or fainting
- Sudden swelling, pain, redness, or warmth in one leg
- Uncontrolled bleeding or a sudden increase in swelling
- Pain that remains severe despite the prescribed treatment plan
- A significant fever, shaking chills, expanding redness, or thick discharge
- Confusion, extreme weakness, or difficulty staying awake
- Possible tissue damage shown by abnormal colour, blistering, or low skin temperature
- An emergency eye symptom such as severe pain, sudden visual change, or vision loss
- Persistent vomiting that prevents normal hydration
- Any problem your surgeon specifically described as requiring emergency care
When a symptom could represent a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to an emergency department. Patients should seek immediate care rather than waiting for the surgeon's office when serious bleeding, breathing problems, chest pain, fainting, or another critical symptom occurs.
Financial Considerations for Cosmetic Surgery in Canada
Procedures performed only to change appearance are generally not covered by provincial or territorial health insurance. Out-of-pocket expenses may include the surgeon, anesthesia provider, operating room, medical devices, recovery clothing, prescriptions, laboratory work, and follow-up items.
The financial responsibility for postoperative problems should be clarified in advance. Coverage may depend on the medical service required, the location where treatment is provided, and the patient's provincial or territorial plan. Patients should budget for possible travel, lodging, caregiving, time away from employment, child care, and future revision surgery.
Anyone travelling outside Canada for cosmetic surgery should arrange appropriate postoperative care before coming home. Lower upfront fees may become more expensive if postoperative infection, wound breakdown, clotting, implant complications, or revision treatment is required.
Evaluating the Advantages and Risks of Cosmetic Surgery
Patients should consider surgery only when their goals are achievable, their health is suitable, and they understand the risks and recovery. A suitable patient recognizes that improvement is possible, but perfection is not.
Before deciding, compare what the operation may achieve with its physical, psychological, practical, and economic consequences. Think about your ability to obey postoperative instructions, live with scars, take enough time off, and emotionally manage an outcome that is not ideal.
When complications are too likely, benefits are small, or expectations cannot be met safely, an experienced surgeon may recommend against operating. Recommending against surgery can be a sign of careful and ethical medical practice.
Deciding Whether Cosmetic Surgery Is Right for You
Learning about cosmetic surgery risks does not mean expecting that something will go wrong. The goal is to make a careful choice based on medical information, not promotional claims, social media influence, or the lowest price.
Learn about the procedure, review your personal risk factors, confirm the surgeon's qualifications, ask detailed questions, and plan for a full recovery. A complete understanding of the likely improvements, procedure limitations, available options, and associated risks helps patients determine whether cosmetic surgery is appropriate for them.