Cosmetic Surgery – Knowing When To Say “Enough’s Enough”

Reconstructive plastic surgery has long been used to repair damage after injuries and accidents; in fact the earliest known practice of reconstructive surgery is in 800BC in India. Techniques and procedures have advanced a great deal since then and plastic surgery is no longer reserved for the injured and disfigured who want to look more ‘normal’. Cosmetic plastic surgery is fairly commonplace these days; many of us probably know someone who has gone under the knife out of vanity.

It’s all thanks to the celebrity world. A-listers and minor celebrities alike have cottoned on to the fact that a little nip and tuck can alter their bodies without them having to put in any undue effort. Modern day society is incredibly image and body conscious. You can’t get through a day without encountering adverts for fad diets and weight-loss pills, figure-shaping underwear, and worst of all, adverts for cosmetic surgery. And unfortunately many people do buy into the quick-fix body solutions offered by cosmetic surgery.

For some people cosmetic surgery works wonders. There are thousands of happy women out there with straighter noses, bigger breasts and wrinkle-free foreheads. However, there are also plenty of horror stories out there highlighting the dangers of cosmetic surgery. Some celebrity examples of cosmetic surgery gone wrong include Pete Burns, Jackie Stallone and Donatella Versace:

This increasing demand for cosmetic plastic surgery has seen a rise in the number of clinics offering procedures at incredibly competitive prices. Women desperate to change their bodies, believing it holds the secrets to a better life, are opting for much cheaper procedures offered by clinics which are often not regulated. Non-surgical procedures, such as Botox injection, currently have little or no regulation in the UK, leaving them open to untrained ‘technicians’ setting up clinics to make a quick buck from the vanity of society.

This increase in unregulated cosmetic procedure clinics has unsurprisingly led to an increase in people with botched Botox and trout lips thanks to too much collagen. In this instance, many people turn to medical negligence solicitors to win them compensation for their botched procedures. The compensation money can’t erase the mental scars of a cosmetic surgery procedure that has gone wrong, but it can help to pay for reconstructive surgery to try to put things right.

I fully believe that anyone willingly wanting to go under the knife to change aspects of their body should be given a prior psychological assessment to determine their mental state. As can be seen in the case of celebrities like Alicia Duvall and Jocelyn Wildenstein, cosmetic plastic surgery can become addictive. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) should be ruled out before surgery commences. People suffering with BDD will never be happy with the way they look, no matter how much surgery they have. Only once BDD, and other psychological conditions, have been ruled out should clinics proceed in performing cosmetic surgery on a patient.