Frequently Asked Questions

Dr ILLIE notes the approximate post-operative timeframe in the caption for each case in the gallery, so you can contextualise what you are seeing. As a general guide, most procedures require three to six months before the result is meaningfully established, and twelve months before it can truly be considered final.

Some gallery images are also taken while the scar is still maturing — typically the first twelve to eighteen months post-operatively — during which it may appear pink, red, or raised before gradually fading. Cases with long-term follow-up photographs show the scar closer to its settled state. Where images show scars that appear more prominent, these represent the normal range of scar outcomes and are included because an honest gallery includes this variability, not just the best-case presentations.

This is why Dr ILLIE photographs patients at multiple timepoints and includes the post-operative date in each gallery caption. A three-month image and a twelve-month image of the same procedure can look quite different — both are real, but the later one represents the true final outcome.

What Dr ILLIE controls is meticulous layered wound closure under minimal skin tension, appropriate suture materials for each tissue layer, and precise incision placement in anatomically favourable positions. What is largely outside surgical control is your individual genetic scar-forming tendency — the same procedure and the same wound care will produce different scar quality in different people. Patients with a history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring elsewhere on the body, or those with higher levels of skin melanin, tend to form more visible scars, and this is discussed during the consultation.

At your consultation with Dr ILLIE, he will assess your skin type and scarring history to give you an honest indication of what your individual scar outcome is likely to look like — rather than assuming your result will mirror a particular gallery case.

Dr ILLIE takes a comprehensive approach to scar management that goes well beyond simply closing the wound and reviewing at six weeks. His programme includes specific medical-grade cosmetic products applied to the scar from the point of wound healing, medical-grade silicone tape worn over the scar during the maturation period, and regular assessment of scar progress at post-operative appointments throughout the first twelve to eighteen months. Where a scar is developing in a way that warrants additional intervention, Dr ILLIE recommends in-clinic treatments — which may include corticosteroid injection into a raised scar, laser therapy, or other targeted treatments — to redirect the scar’s maturation and improve its long-term appearance. Patients are never simply told to wait and see; there are active measures available, and Dr ILLIE discusses and recommends them individually as warranted.

When reviewing the gallery, it is worth noting that cases with particularly smooth, seamless results often involve patients with very good skin quality. This does not mean that patients with less elastic skin will not achieve an excellent result — the surgical technique is adapted to account for skin quality — but it does mean that realistic expectations are calibrated to the individual’s skin, not a gallery image taken of someone whose skin characteristics may differ significantly from your own. Dr ILLIE discusses this at your consultation using the assessment findings specific to you.

The best way to understand what Dr ILLIE can achieve for your specific anatomy is to book a consultation. During the consultation, he will assess your individual presentation, discuss what is achievable, and explain — using his own surgical judgement rather than a gallery case — what he would recommend and why. The outcome of your surgery will be planned around your body, not around a gallery photograph of someone else’s.

Dr Vlad ILLIE consults from Bondi Junction and Gosford and is accepting new patients for consultation bookings from across Sydney.

What surgical body contouring addresses is excess skin and localised fat deposits — it is not a weight-loss tool, and it produces the best and most sustained results in patients who have already reached a stable weight they intend to maintain. The visual impression of “looking lighter” is a consequence of improved body contour, removal of skin excess, and redistribution of volume — not a loss of weight in the clinical sense. Dr ILLIE is clear about this distinction during his consultations, to ensure that patients have appropriately calibrated expectations.

For facelift surgery, the deep plane technique that Dr ILLIE performs — which works at the structural level of the SMAS rather than just tightening the skin — produces results that are more durable than skin-only approaches, because the structural layer is repositioned rather than simply stretched. Most patients can reasonably expect a facelift to remain meaningful for eight to twelve years, after which some patients consider a secondary procedure. For body contouring, results are highly dependent on weight stability — patients who maintain a stable weight after surgery preserve their result far better than those who experience significant weight gain.

For breast lift surgery specifically, Dr ILLIE is honest that a mastopexy result is not indefinite — gravity and changes in breast volume over time will eventually cause some descent of the breast relative to the post-operative position. The longevity of a lift is influenced by breast size, skin quality, and whether significant weight changes occur afterward.

Dr ILLIE welcomes you bringing gallery photographs to your consultation as a reference — they are a useful starting point for a conversation about what you are hoping to achieve and what may be realistic for your particular anatomy. However, he will guide the consultation toward an honest, individualised assessment of what your own result is likely to look like, rather than framing a gallery case as a template to be reproduced. This approach reflects his commitment to informed consent and to patients having expectations that are genuinely achievable for them, not aspirational comparisons based on someone else’s body.

For breast surgery in particular, Dr ILLIE assesses the degree of natural asymmetry between the two breasts during his pre-operative planning and discusses with the patient what degree of correction is achievable and what residual asymmetry may remain. During the operation, he assesses symmetry at multiple points and adjusts where needed — but biological variability in how each side heals and settles in the months after surgery means that some residual difference in the final result is a normal and expected outcome. The gallery reflects this honestly, because including only cases of exceptional bilateral symmetry would misrepresent the real-world range of outcomes from Sydney plastic surgery.

Dr ILLIE plans combination procedures in the same integrated way he plans individual ones — the components of a Mummy Makeover, for example, are not simply stacked together but are sequenced and planned in a way that allows safe, coordinated recovery and a coherent overall result. At your Sydney plastic surgery consultation, he will discuss the planned combination, the order in which components will be performed, and how to interpret the gallery cases most relevant to your situation.