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Your Health InfoCenter is an Internet resource that offers you an opportunity to research elective surgery. Your Health InfoCenter does not offer medical advice or referrals.

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Fee-for-service medicine involves a range of procedures that insurance companies will not pay for because they consider them “elective” rather than “necessary.” Many patients choose to pay for such procedures themselves. Elective procedures may enhance appearance, improve vision, increase fertility, or treat troublesome conditions, depending on the procedure. Following is an overview of some of the most popular types of elective surgery.

Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery offers patients a means of changing their appearance. People choose to undergo cosmetic surgery for a number of reasons pertaining to appearance, health, and self-esteem. The most popular cosmetic surgery procedures include: breast augmentation, breast reduction, facelift, rhinoplasty (nose surgery), blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), liposuction, and abdominoplasty. Cosmetic surgery can be performed on most areas of the body and face, removing, tightening, smoothing, or reshaping skin, tissue, and fat. Sometimes nonsurgical procedures, such as chemical peels and BOTOX® injections, are also lumped under the term cosmetic surgery because cosmetic surgeons perform them.

Dermatology

Dermatology is a medical field that deals with the skin, hair, and nails. A number of factors can cause damage to the skin, including sun, aging, pollution, infection, and disease. Dermatologists are specially trained physicians who can treat various skin conditions (such as acne), perform surgical procedures related to the skin (such as skin cancer removal), and provide cosmetic treatments (such as microdermabrasion and Restylane® injections). Dermatology provides a means of improving the skin’s health and appearance.

Ophthalmology

Ophthalmology is a medical field that deals with vision and the eyes. Ophthalmologists receive both general medical and specific eye-related training. Unlike optometry, ophthalmology is concerned with surgical procedures that correct vision problems and treat eye diseases. Most ophthalmologists are trained to provide treatment for common eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. Many also perform laser vision correction surgery. Refractive procedures include LASIK, LASEK, and PRK. Each of these procedures can improve the vision of people with nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.

Cosmetic Dentistry

Cosmetic dentistry improves the appearance of a person’s smile using a variety of dental procedures, techniques, and materials. Cosmetic dentistry procedures include: porcelain veneers, tooth whitening, invisalign®, and dental implants. Recent advances have made natural-looking, tooth-colored materials available in shades to match almost any tooth color. Many procedures that were once strictly restorative have been given an aesthetic boost through the use of these new materials. Many cosmetic dentists use advanced technology in diagnosing and treating their patients’ conditions. Smile design and computer-aided planning help cosmetic dentists and patients connect and work together toward a common goal.

Infertility

Infertility is defined as a couple’s inability to have a child after one year of trying. For cases of infertility in which the cause can be determined, male and female factors are at work equally often (about 35% of the cases each). In slightly less than a third of cases, the cause of infertility is unknown. Infertility treatments range from the use of fertility drugs to more invasive procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT). These latter procedures are known as Assisted Reproductive Therapy, or ART procedures. Other infertility treatments include artificial insemination and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Although infertility treatments are not guaranteed to induce pregnancy, they can increase an infertile couple’s chance of conceiving.

Bariatric Surgery

Men and women who suffer from morbid obesity now have effective treatment options available to them. The most popular bariatric weight loss surgery procedures performed today are the roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery procedure and the LAP-BAND system surgery. Physicians recommend that the procedures be performed on patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. If you or a loved one is interested in undergoing weight loss surgery, it is important to speak with a qualified doctor to ensure that you are a good candidate for bariatric surgery.

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