Marisa Lawrence Plastic Surgeon MD

At the time of my surgeries in 2004, Dr. Lawerence had a PA that did most of her leg work and you only got to see Dr. Lawerence briefly. However, she was very good at her job, so I quess it did not really matter that she did not spend a lot of time with you. I need two more surgeries, tummy tuck & face lift. I will consider using her again, although she is very expensive. Get ready for sticker shock!

she is extremely kind and sensitive to my embarrassment of how my body looks, very patient and made me feel as if i was her number one patient, her staff is awesome, my body was such a distorted mess when i went to see her, i knew going in that no one would be able to make my stomache look completely flat i still have these two pouches at the sides of my naval that even her staff had never seen before,but considering how distorted i was i think she performed a miracle, she got rid of all of my rolls of excess skin and tightened the lower part of my abdomen a lot,she took great care in my pain management,she was great! she is an artist with her hands , you just really would have to see my improvement, there are no words to describe my gratitude for what she managed to do with my body.

Dr. Lawrence is FANTASTIC. Ohmigawd... you should see what she did with my body. From gross to fabulous. It is absolutely incredible. I would recommend her to anyone for anything. A true professional and an incredible surgeon. I am very lucky to have gone to such an outstanding surgeon. Also, ALL of her staff is GREAT. They treat me with kindness and the utmost respect. All of them are just great. Louisa has the patience of a saint. She always stayed with me and answered all of my questions and never once gave any indication that I was being a pain or taking too much of her time. Alyssa is also so incredible. She is so caring and also a very skilled PA. I had and continue to have the utmost confidence in both Dr. Lawrence and Alyssa. In one surgery I had a breast lift, arms, tummy tuck and the sides by my breast where there was a huge amount of hanging skin. I was 1 year post op gastric bypass surgery losing 150 lbs and at goal weight when I had this surgery. On Sept. 19, 2005 I am going to have my thighs and butt done. I can't wait. Dr. Lawrence is a miracle worker considering she had a mess on her hands with all my excess skin...hahaha My legs and butt are the worst, so thank god, she is great. Lastly, I don't know how she would treat obese patients as I was not one of them when I first arrived. I can make an educated guess though... all of them would treat you just as good as someone of normal weight.

I had a very positive, caring experience of the office staff, nurses, administrator & Dr. Lawrence during my initial & follow-up consultations in Feb. '05. I am scheduled for a lower facelift & brachioplasty this Monday, 3/28/05 at 9:15am. I'm nervous about the fact they've reserved the OR for 6 hours!!! I know this is routine, I've just never been "under" that long. All prayers gratefully received.

Yesterday was 6weeks post op and the whole experience has been great! I've been back to Dr. Lawrence's office to have the staples removed (post-op visits 1&2) sutures removed (visits 2&3) and I asked to see a nurse yesterday - spur of the moment - just to make sure it was OK to resume working out with my fitness trainer. The office was happy to have me stop by at my convenience and Luisa spent a good 20-25 min. not only evaluating my thin, flat scars but answering alllll my questions. Now, I'm submitting a case to have my health insurance pay for plastic surgery on my butt & thighs cause I'm so saggy-baggy back there I'm getting chronic sores/rashes in the folds. Gross, I know. You should see the polaroids. Actually, don't go there...
Everyone in her office has been kind and attentive.
Dr. Lawrence has been very happy with her work on my face & arms;and my compliance with her post-op regimen. I wore compression sleaves on my arms allll the time for 5 weeks and the last week, I started not wearing them during the day, for example. Only at night. That's been a major reason why the scars ARE so thin & flat. My face looks absolutely natural - only YOUNGER!! I'll have to put a new photo of me in my profile.
When I wrote "not applicable" on her sensitivity to obese people, it was meant to say that because I was not an obese person when she met me, nor did I see any obese people in her waiting room, I wasn't in a position to assess that issue.
She is one of only 2 plastic surgeons in the Atlanta area that my bypass surgeon will personally refer folks to. I'm thrilled that I chose her.

It's Nov. 20, 2005 and I'm a week shy of 8 months post-op. You can see a photo of me taken yesterday as the first speaker at the Houston Obesity Help
Event by going to the
Texas forum and going to Connie
Flores' photo album of the show. I'[m wearing the Santa hat! I'm also wearing a colorful, horizontal-striped turtleneck & my arms still look slender! Check out my profile, too. The lower facelift got rid of my turkey wattle so naturally no one'd guess I'd had plastic surgery.
Dr. Lawrence is an artist!!

Post op for Belt lipectomy at one month. Incision has 95% healed with the exception of area of most tension below the navel...this area will require debriding. Dr. L went all out in a very agressive handling of my procedure...at her discretion...which made a week stay at Northside Hospital (with 2 days in extended recovery) a wise directive.
The comments about self-pay v. insuror expense are not applicable in my case as the staff, PA's and Dr. Lawrence provided the top-shelf care and persistence for a fully covered procedure by my PPO. Marisa and staff are not the negotiators in application and approval by your insuror...you are. If your group or HMO have exceptions to various procedures....this is something for YOU to handle before you take up time at their office.
Dr. Lawrence is right up front about the Belt Lipectomy with regards to pain and the tedium of recovery...it IS painful (they give you plenty of scripts to have pain control on hand when you return home) and the care of incision, sutures, staples and drains is NOT for the weak of heart, mind or less than 100% committed and informed.

There are no shoulders or crying towels at the office...no room for patients not completely ready for such a drastic procedure...which is the way it should be. The Belt Lipectomy is one major procedure (it was in my case) that deserves mental agility and compliance on the part of the patient to be ready and a dose of patience while on the mend which is extended. If you're prepared...Dr. Lawrence can very handily take care of the rest. She had my utmost confidence going into surgery and I'm very impressed with the post 1 month results to date.

Dr. Lawrence was very pleasant. She seemed awful busy, but that is expected when dealing with doctors. Although, her answers seemed short and to the point, she stayed and answered all of my questions. However, she comes so highly recommended that I can look past this. Her Physicians Assistant was EXCELLENT! She was so sweet and kind, and even chatted on a personal level with me. The only thing I did not like was the lady in charge of her accounting department. She was short, and to the point. In my situation, she had a personal opinion that my insurance would not cover the liposuction part of my surgery, so she wasn't going to even try to file it with them. After much coaxing, she agreed.

If you are looking for a plastic surgeon that is agressive and will say that you need everything redone, then I suggest you look else where. Dr. Lawrence was very conservative in her recommendations, but I have heard that she does excellent work. And yes, when you go for a consultation, she has pictures of her work for you to evaluate, including past gastric bypass patients she has worked on.

so far i have only had a consultation with them. Hoping to have surgery.

I just made my first apt. for a consult on Aug. 26. I'll fill in more information as I learn more, as for now from my short conversation on the phone with the Dr.'s people I have learned that a Belt Lipectomy runs $17000 total, a thigh lift would be about $9000 total, consultation fee is $100. The lady who I spoke to on the about insurance stated that they had had success getting coverage from BC/BS ppo (not hmo), Aetna, United Healthcare, and Georgia State Merit.

Just had my first actual office visit with Dr. Lawrence. She was extremely nice and i wasn't mades to feel uncomfortable at all. Staff was very nice and polite as well. As far as th obesity specific reviews she seemed to be very considerate dealing with me she also had seating available in the waiting area for larger individuals and the chair in the examining room was large enough for most individuals and was arm free.

I am having the works done Breast lift with Implants, Tummy Tuck with Lipo on Hips, Medial Thigh Lift with Lipo on inner and outer thighs, and an Arm lift all at the same time. So far I have met with Dr. Lawrence for the consult and the Pre Op. The consult did seem a little rushed but when I asked questions she answered them completely and went over everything. The pre op was very thorough. Her PA Allyssa was very helpful, she has been the person I've spent the most time with. The only complaint I have is with Glenda her schedulr and finance person. Either she is very overworked or she is just very slow about returning phone calls. I am a self pay person but I was going to finance one of my procedures, I called her twice to inquire if the office accepted the Cosmetic Fee Plan (Capital One) and she led me to believe that she would talk to Dr. Lawrence about it and it was the Dr.s call, well when I went in for Pre Op she seemed to have forgotten all about it and when I asked her about it she just said we don't accept any financing, why she didn't tell me that when I called I don't know. So I would recommend staying on top of your financial status with her. I do believe that the office does seem to cater to Self Pay patients so if you are using insurance you might have a different experience with this plastic surgeion. I don't mean as far as Dr. Lawrence but with her staff. My surgery date is June 16 I will update again after.

After hearing all the wonderful things that people had to say about Dr. Lawrence I decided to meet with her. I had a great experience up until it was time to get insurance approval. I'm currently on my third appeal and I just received a letter stating that they will no longer be accepting Blue Cross/Blue Shield! First of all, the information that was required to get the approval was not communicated to me until this final time. ( A letter from me was necessary, as well as one from my PCP) Secondly, why in the world would you put me through all of this, if it's not possible for me to go to you? It's been horrible! Good luck to anyone else out there. This is nothing against Dr. Lawrence, per se, but, I should have been notified of the possiblity of this! I know have to go through the process all over again with a new surgeon.** Update- I was able to get my plastic surgery covered by insurance through Dr. Bernadette Wang-Ashraf's office. I had it done on October 8th and am doing great! See my post under her name for my thoughts on this new doctor. Good luck to everyone going through this!