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If a person is insecure about something on their body and had the ability to change it, why wouldn’t they? Yet if they do alter a feature would others notice? Would they be called fake? Or even worse, plastic? The world of cosmetic surgery has been up and coming for generations now. Plastic surgery is even expanding more so to teens and young adults; therefore it is essential to learn the causes and effects, to help make a proper decision that may last a lifetime. Going through a cosmetic procedure myself has changed and altered my views, but has also bettered my knowledge for future instances through credible sources and research done. Various types of plastic surgeries, risks of plastic surgeries, and trends due to plastic surgeries will be broken down and explored.
Types of Cosmetic Surgeries
A rhinoplasty is a very commonly growing surgery amongst teens and young adults. “Colloquially referred to as a ‘nose job,’ rhinoplasty may alter the tissue, cartilage and bone of the nose to improve its appearance or correct a functional problem.” A nose job is altering ones nose to fit the shape and structure the patient requests. Bones may be shaved down, while tissue and cartilage may be added to build and hold the nose structure. Nose jobs have a bit of a long healing process. After surgery a nasal splint, or a cast, is worn for about a week. During that week, nose bleeds, and under eye bruising is normal and common. After the cast removal, one should expect swelling of the nose to last anywhere from 6-12 months. Another surgery that requires reshaping and resizing of a body feature is a breast augmentation.
Breast augmentation, commonly known as a boob job, is the number one most common cosmetic procedure performed amongst women. It is designed to enhance the breast size and, in some cases, the shape with the use of an implant. Breast implants are designed to larger a woman’s breast size by adding implants at whatever preferred cup size. Implants may also reconstruct the shape of a breast by giving the breasts a lift, circular shape, or even reducing the nipple size on a breast. The surgery as a whole, with medicine and Anastasia included, ranges anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 depending on who the surgeon is, as well as the type of implant being placed in. Breast surgery may not be too much of a noticeable change; however, a facelift may be quite the opposite.
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A face-lift is a major alteration made all around ones facial features. Surgeons preform this procedure to make a person appear more youthful. The doctors first have to make incisions behind the ears and around the hairline to access important areas that need to be reconstructed. They then lift the skin up, tighten and reshape the skin tissues for a more contoured appearance, and finally they remove the excess skin before everything gets stitched back together. “Recovery time from a facelift (rhytidectomy) will vary depending on the individual, but as a general rule, for most people of good health, noticeable swelling will be reduced within the first 10 days after surgery.”
Facelift recovery takes about 2 weeks. During those 2 weeks, patients are recommend a few days of bed rest, minimal activity, and some pain killers. Ones face may look irregular in the beginning, and they also might face discomfort due to itching, but this is all normal and apart of the healing process. Similar to a drastic change due to a facelift, liposuction is another procedure that leaves a patient with a very noticeable difference.
Liposuction, also known as lipo, is one of the top most commonly performed cosmetic surgeries in the United States. Liposuction is preformed to slim and carve out desired areas on the body by removing extra fat to deepen the contours and proportions on ones body. Liposuction can alter the thighs, hips, buttocks, stomach, waist, upper arms, back, knees, chest, cheeks, chin, calves, and ankles. By slimming the size of either one of the body areas, ones appearance can drastically change to fit the look they desired going into the surgery. Liposuction can be performed alone or along with other plastic surgery procedures, such as a facelift, breast reduction or a tummy tuck.
“The most commonly performed plastic surgery in the United States is Liposuction, also known as Liposculpture, – more than 400,000 men and women undergo this procedure annually.” The average cost of liposuction is $3,374. The physical appearance of any of these plastic surgeries may end up great; however, with any cosmetic surgery performed there are some major risks involved.
Risks of Cosmetic Surgeries
Scarring is a physical risk that may be permanent caused by cosmetic surgery. During breast augmentation, one may face symptoms of capsular contracture, also known as scarring. “Capsular contracture is a tightening (“contracture”) of the scar tissue that forms around the breast implant after it is placed (the “capsule”)…severe contractures can be painful and may distort the breast by pulling the breast implant up significantly.” A big risk with cosmetic surgery is scar tissue not healing properly, and in the case of breast implants, the pulling of the implant too high which will cause severe pain, and the need for a revision surgery. Any time an incision is made, a scar will form especially on sensitive locations of skin. Another physical downside of cosmetic surgery may be the risk unevenness.
Unevenness of a body part after plastic surgery is very commonly seen through breast implants and nose surgery. One major physical risk of any surgery is the outcome and symmetry of the body part. Breast augmentation for example, could end up very uneven due to either the doctor, or even the woman’s body that is being worked on. Paying thousands of dollars only to end up with an uneven bust is a risky aspect of cosmetic surgery. “A reshaped nose can sometimes make the asymmetry of your nostrils more obvious.” A nose job could bring out more asymmetry of ones nose, then their nose before the surgery was preformed. Uneven nostrils could lead to another rhinoplasty, with yet again no guarantee of the outcome. Along with external complications cosmetic surgery may cause, internal complications are also common.
Hematoma is a life threatening infection that may result from plastic surgery. Hematoma is a serious infection that involves a collection of blood outside ones blood vessels that eventually spills out into the surrounding tissue. “Other types of tissue injury causing a hematoma can result from surgeries…” Since cosmetic surgeries damage tissue and vessels when reconstructing certain areas, hematoma may be formed. One terrifying risk to plastic surgery is nerve damage. “While surgical nerve injury is not always avoidable, it is especially objectionable in cosmetic plastic surgery.”
Plastic surgery is performed to improve a certain feature or area on an individual. A healthy person might wake up and be worse internally than they were before being put under the knife. “Nerve damage includes a spectrum from sensory nerve deficits (numbness and tingling sensation) to motor nerve deficits (weakness or paralysis of certain muscles). If a nerve is severely damaged, the effects may be permanent.” Almost all plastic surgeries include an incision being made.
Nerve damage can occur when a nerve is either cut or stretched. In the case of plastic surgery skin is almost always cut, stretched, or pulled, so a doctor can only hope to make sure the areas they work on do not come in contact with the patients nerves. Hypothetically, a patient who has normal functions, and is going in for a physical change could end up waking up with numbness or even paralysis of certain muscles that were operated on. Risks seem to be a big enough factor to stop someone from going under the knife; however, celebrities and the media seem to overpower the true dangerous of plastic surgery.
Trends/ Media Leading to Cosmetic Surgery
Celebrities play a major role in our society’s view of pure beauty. “…It was common to have a patient come in with a photo of a celebrity asking to replicate a particular star’s nose, eyes, bust line, etc.…” Most teenagers and young adults try to alter their appearance into looking like a specific celebrity they admire. They take pictures of Kylie Jenners lips, Kim Kardashians hips, etc and ask for the same features to be put on their body. “After all, implicit in the advertisements and promotional TV shows is the promise merely of bigger breasts or flatter stomachs, but also the idea of a psychological lift.” Television is a subtle advertisement for flat stomachs and big busts. With celebrities walking around with the perfect body, and the perfect features, watchers turn to cosmetic surgery to help adjust their own body to mimic one of a celebrity.
“Young adult years can be highly impressionable, and the more they are inundated with celebrity images via social media or on television, the more they want to replicate the enhanced, re-touched images that are passed off as reality.” Most pictures on social media are enhanced versions of a celebrities true features and body proportions. Teenagers are trying to replicate these features by turning to cosmetic surgery to help reshape the way they look into mimicking the way a popular TV star looks. With the surplus of posts, and television shows, cosmetic surgery rates are increasing due to the ubiquitous appearance that is the new mainstream. This ongoing need to look like ones favorite TV star, can eventually turn into an obsession.
Plastic surgery may be exciting when one loves their new look; however, the love of change may turn into an obsession. “Plastic surgery addiction is a behavioral addiction characterized by psychological compulsions to continuously alter one’s appearance with cosmetic surgery.” One procedure done leads to another, which then leads to another. Sometimes a person who undergoes plastic surgery can never have enough. They like their new small nose, but feel as if now their cheeks stick out. Their new skinny flat stomach calls for a bigger bust. The cycle goes on and on. You can now say that this individual is addicted to cosmetic surgery.
“People with body dimorphic disorder will often seek plastic surgery in order to alleviate their distress, but since they have a mental disorder and not a physical one, they will always find something new that is perceived to be ‘wrong’ with them.” People with body dimorphic disorder are never pleased with themselves; therefore, one usually turns to cosmetic surgery to help change something about themselves that they nit pick about all the time. After loving their new and plastic feature about themself, they keep longing for more and more. Even if nothing is physically wrong with a certain body part, they look for reasons to hate it, and turn back to cosmetic surgery. Surgery addiction and body image and directly related to one another.
Body image is a growing issue in our world today. “The reality is that cosmetic surgery can fix poor body image and low self-esteem.” Plastic surgery, to some, can seem like a solution to help better ones self-esteem about their body image. In our society, it seems as if a knife to skin fix is much easier and quicker than an actual emotional system to help one overcome their problems with the way they look. “Some simply want to fit in by normalizing physical aspects of their bodies (this is a reason often cited by teenagers).” Other people may want to achieve a striking look, quite often through breast augmentation. “Some want help maintaining a healthy body weight through liposuction. Still others wish to restore their youthful appearance through facelifts…”
All of these changes and desires play a role in body image. Teenagers often turn to plastic surgery when trying to fit the “norm.” They criticize their features if they aren’t closely related to one of their peers. They judge their weight by comparing themselves to the skinniest girl in school. All these insecurities are filtered out by cosmetic work being done on them. Some women want to be more “out there.” They get breast implants to become more noticed by the public. Other people need a source of eating less, so they get liposuction to maintain a healthy body mass. Instead of putting months of time, hard work, and discipline into losing weight, they turn to an alternative that only takes a few hours, and doesn’t require the dedication natural weight loss does.
Very common in men and women over the age of 45, a face-lift is a procedure that brings life back into a middle-aged persons face. They long for a more youthful appearance, so the solution for some is a surgery that pulls back loose skin, and gets rid of wrinkles all around. All of these circumstances fall under the factor of body image, where one is insecure of their current face, and body features so they turn to surgery to improve them. Cosmetic surgery has a lot of factors that tie into it, as well as the motivation behind getting the procedure done.
As noticed, there are many factors that come into play on the topic of cosmetic surgery. Knowing what type of surgery does what to ones appearance, and how that goal look is achieved. What gets cut and how will they reshape a feature? Knowing the different types of risks and complications of surgery that might be unavoidable, and dangerous to the body and ones physical appearance. Are they deadly and likely to happen with the surgery that is chosen? And finally knowing where ones desire of changing their appearance is truly rooting from. Is it a true insecurity, or is it an influence?
It is important learning about all these factors of cosmetic surgery, to help one make a decision that they must live with for the rest of their life. Ultimately the decision is on a single individual. A surgery may change a person, especially if it is preformed at a young age. A lot ties into the world of cosmetics so one must really look into every detail about it. Are they ready to change who they are? Do they really even need it? All of these are very difficult questions to answer. The world of cosmetic surgery awaits.
