Cosmetic Surgery: Conflicting Goals - Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery Advice

Cosmetic Surgery: Conflicting Goals - Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery Advice

Cosmetic Surgery: Conflicting Goals

Plastic surgery is not just boobs and noses. Training textbooks reveal the finest details of striated muscle excised from its moorings or bones elongated by the surgeon's tools. Cosmetic surgery at its essence seems to project confusing aims. It aims on one hand to restore deformities. On the other hand, it aims to alter the normal. Into this continuum flow the widest range of patients, each with a mix of need and wants. A stunning blonde comes to the plastic surgeon looking for a tummy tuck even though she's thin. An Apert Syndrome child may enter next, with a jaw so foreshortened that her teeth cannot root in their sockets. Both seek something special, an altering of their circumstances.

Plastic surgery is wide ranging high minded and flexible. It manages to be utterly and absurdly frivolous as well as extremely necessary, all at the same time in the same breadth and by the same scalpel.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in 2001 over 1.4 million persons undertook cosmetic surgery by board certified plastic surgeons. This represents an increase of over 220% since 1992. These cosmetic surgery data do not include medically necessary or reconstructive surgeries. The cosmetic surgery procedures break down into core groups based as much on popularity and cultural values as any other factor. Approximately 230,000 people ordered liposuction procedures. Breast augmentation implants reshaping and so on accounted for about 188,000 procedures. Eyelid surgery accounted for a further 172,000 patients. Newly available Botox injections drew 119,000 clients. Face lifts attracted nearly 71,000 people.

Although most cosmetic surgery procedures are performed on women, a growing number of men are lining up at the plastic surgeons' counter. For example, men have ordered nose jobs at a rate which has increased 114% since 1997. The vast majority of people are white, but not necessarily wealthy despite the fact that these procedures are generally out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance. A 1994 study found that over 65% of cosmetic surgery patients have incomes less than $50,000 annually, which suggests that the tremendous popularity and growth in cosmetic surgery is spreading out socio-economically as more and more people accept the basis for body alteration.