My industry has a rule it will not say out loud: never put a price on the website. Make them call. Make them come in. Let the coordinator handle the number.
I broke that rule years ago, and the most searched question in body contouring, what liposuction and a tummy tuck cost together, is the one it was built to dodge. So here is the answer, in my numbers, as of this writing.
As of this writing, the liposuction bands on my fees page are: flanks $4,000; abdomen $5,500 to $7,500; 360 $11,000 to $15,000; and “Lipo, Lipo, Everywhere” $15,000 to $21,500. Confirm the current number there before you plan around it.
A tummy tuck runs $16,000 to $26,000, which I wrote about here. And now the part that makes the addition wrong.
“Yes. Flank lipo is bundled in, not priced on top. This is why a combined case comes in below the two line items added together.”
Every tummy tuck I do carries liposuction of the abdomen and the flanks inside it. Not as a courtesy. Because a tummy tuck without the sides done looks like a tummy tuck, and I want it to look like a waist. So if you have been adding the tummy tuck band to the lipo band, stop. The combined case starts at the tummy tuck band.
Where does the number actually move? Three places on the liposuction side.
“The number of liposuction sites performed. How long the surgery takes, since that determines the cost of the operating room and anesthesia. Adding skin tightening (BodyTite or Renuvion J-Plasma) adds both cost and time.”
And three on the tummy tuck side.
“The exact type of tummy tuck required, which often tracks the incision length: mini, standard, extended, or circumferential. Expected time in the operating room, since that influences anesthesia and OR cost. That time is often determined by the complexity of the case and the patient’s BMI.”
Sites, time, technology. Incision, time, BMI. Time shows up in both lists because the operating room and the anesthesiologist bill by the hour, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What I will say is that my published number already includes them. The facility, the anesthesia, the garments, the vitamins, the scar care. You pick up your prescriptions. That is the whole list of things on you.
The add-on everyone asks about is skin tightening, and the answer is yes, it costs extra, and no, it is not one device.
“Skin tightening is an add-on that increases cost and time. The practice offers a family of radiofrequency devices, chosen by body area: BodyTite: radiofrequency with both an internal and external component. Renuvion J-Plasma: radiofrequency plus a helium plasma component; works internally only (subdermal). FaceTite: used on the neck. Many patients combine liposuction with skin tightening.”
Arms and inner thighs get BodyTite. Neck gets FaceTite. Nearly everything else gets Renuvion J-Plasma, which I have written about at length because it is the reason many of my liposuction patients never need the skin excision they were told to expect.
Now the email I get the morning after a consult. Why is my quote higher than the website?
“Baseline: if nothing else is added and the surgery is not expected to take longer than the standard time, the quote matches the website.”
“Common reason a quote runs higher: the patient wants liposuction in more areas to improve the overall body contour, frequently adding the upper back and the lateral chest. Those areas especially benefit from adding Renuvion J-Plasma. This makes the procedure longer (more OR and anesthesia time) and adds the cost of the additional procedures and areas themselves. So the base price holds, but added zones plus skin tightening lift the final quote.”
That is the whole mechanism, and I would rather you read it here than discover it in a quote. The band did not move. The case did. You asked for the upper back and the lateral chest, and you were right to, and then you asked for the skin over them to contract. The operation got longer and bigger. The website number is the operation as published.
The combined case I book most often has its own name.
“Most common of all, with its own name: the MOMMY MAKEOVER. A tummy tuck with liposuction, plus some kind of breast procedure, whether a breast augmentation, a breast reduction, or a breast lift. Adding more liposuction sites: upper back, lateral chest, arms, inner thighs, and neck. Adding a BBL or fat transfer to the buttocks to improve the hip and buttock contour.”
One anesthesia, one operating room, one recovery. That is why a combination is generally less than the sum of its parts, and why the mommy makeover has its own cost read.
One more thing, because publishing a number invites comparison with numbers that are not really numbers. A surgeon’s fee is not a price. It is the first of three bills. And a price far below the market is not a discount; it is a question.
“A bargain that costs you a revision, or your health, is not a bargain at all.”
I revise other surgeons’ tummy tucks, from this side of the border and the other, more often than I would like. The revision costs more than the original would have here, and the result is never quite what it could have been.
The full clinical version, with the comparison table and the FAQ, is on agulloplasticsurgery.com. The fees page is where the numbers live and where they change first. An exact quote can only be provided after a consultation.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
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