People often undergo plastic surgery to improve their appearance. This can be done for many reasons, such as to look younger, slimmer, or to have a more symmetrical face. Plastic surgery can also help correct congenital anomalies or repair damage caused by an accident. Overall, studies suggest that most patients were satisfied with the outcome and felt better about themselves. This was particularly the case for women who underwent reduction mammoplasty.
Among the areas of functioning that showed improvement were “self-esteem”, distress and shyness, and “quality of life”. However, many of these studies have methodological limitations, such as small sample sizes and potentially biased determination. It could be said that patients who agree to participate in this type of research and commit to pre-intervention and post-intervention interviews represent a biased group, but none of the studies estimated the extent of that potential bias. In addition, clinical interviews may be subject to bias on the part of both the respondent and the interviewer, and very few studies employed “blind evaluators”.
It is especially worrying that not all studies used valid evaluation tools, making it difficult to interpret the results. Finally, most studies evaluated very specific procedures and it's not clear how generalizable their results are to other types of cosmetic interventions. Cosmetic surgery aims to improve the way people look and feel about themselves. It can be performed on almost any part of the face or body.
Many people who choose this type of surgery hope that it will boost their self-esteem. Another name for the field of aesthetic medicine is aesthetic medicine. In addition, such procedures are performed by a variety of different professionals, including aesthetic doctors, dermatologists, and plastic surgeons. The terms “reconstructive plastic surgery” and “cosmetic surgery” may seem similar, but they represent different types of procedures.
Most plastic surgeons are well aware of the presence of patients whose hope of obtaining the effects of surgery is not realistic and, over time, could lead to litigation and increased depression. Sarwer et al. (attribute this recent increase to the availability of plastic surgeons, media influence, evolutionary interests, and personal factors related to the patient). Figures provided by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reveal that cosmetic procedures (surgical and non-surgical) performed by plastic surgeons, dermatologists and otorhinolaryngologists increased 119% between 1997 and 1999.2 In 1999, more than 4.6 million such procedures were performed, the top five being chemical peels (18.3% of the total), botulinum toxin A injection (10.8%), laser hair removal (10.5%), collagen injection (10.5%) 3%) and sclerotherapy (9.0%).You can have cosmetic surgery by a plastic surgeon, dermatologist, otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat surgeon), or others.
