It may be the entertainment world's favorite pastime, but there's quite a few things the general public doesn't know about cosmetic surgery. While, plastic is fantastic, what you don't know may bite you in the end (your end... or your front, it terms of facial plastic surgery).
#5: A Surgeon Need Not Specialize In Plastic Surgery To Perform Cosmetic Procedures
One of the most frequently offered nuggets of wisdom dispensed by board certified plastic surgeons is to only choose a board certified plastic surgeon. This is, of course, a wonderful piece of advice as, contrary to many medical myths floating about, a surgeon need not be board certified to perform plastic surgery. Cosmetic procedures performed by non-cosmetic surgeons is on the rise - right along with the number of botched surgeries requiring board certified surgeon's expertize to fix.
That doesn't mean you can't get a quality operation from a non-plastic surgeon. Hair transplant surgeons are often dermatologist - some of the best, in fact. Still, even hair transplant surgeons have boards and coalitions to which they choose to belong to add to their reputation.
#4: Liposuction Is Not For The Obese
Many people refer, often derogatorily, obese people to liposuction. Unfortunately, liposuction is usually only performed on those with 24% (the CDC considers this and below - down to 18.5% - a healthy BMI) body fat or less. It takes 30% or more body fat before one is considered obese in America.
The liposuction process not only sucks away emulsified fat, but blood as well. The surgeon can only rid a patient of so much fat without stealing away precious blood. If the surgeon took away too much blood with the melted fat, he or she would be putting the patient's life at risk. Other complications caused by obesity make most elective surgeries (like liposuction) risky and unrecommended.
Even the newest forms of liposuction, VASAR and Smartlipo MPX™, are meant for ridding a patient of small amounts of fat (even smaller than tumescent liposuction). Smartlipo MPX™, for example, has a maximum area fat removal capacity for about 2 liters of fat. That's about the size of a coke can. That small amount is unlikely to make a major impact for those with significant amounts of abdominal fat. In the latter case, abdomenoplasty (tummy tuck) is more appropriate.
#3: Having Surgery On The Same Area More Than Once Will Make Each Progressive Surgery More Difficult And Lead To Diminishing Returns
A build-up of scar tissue, combined with less raw material with which to work will make each surgery performed in the same area more difficult for the surgeon. Surgeries that must be performed multiple times over the life of the patient may lead to complications, most notably visible complication as in the occurrence of dents between the tissues of the chest and a breast implant. Build-up enough scar tissue, and eventually, successive surgeries are unlikely to be any help.
#2: Breast Implants Typically Have A Maximum Life Of About Five To Ten Years
All devices fail at one point or another and breast implants are no exception. Patients that seek breast implants must, unfortunately, prepare for multiple surgeries - even if one surgery is to place the implants and one to remove them... Even if the implant doesn't rupture, all implants have a tendency to move with time, so they may need to be removed and possibly repositioned and/or replaced.
#1: As Many Have Observed Lately, Cosmetic Surgery Is At Its Best When It's Reshaping And Granting A New Aesthetic, As Opposed To Trying To Hold Back The Ravages Of Time
Time marches on and for many of us, it marches over our face. True, you can Botox-away some of those wrinkles and filler-out some of those frown lines. You can undo some of the damage caused by the sunny days of your youth. You can even make your skin appear tighter (sometimes too tight) and the science of anti-aging is evolving more every day.
Still, someone that tries to hold back the hands of time with a surgeon's scalpel is likely to end-up looking like a wax figure. There may come a day when a surgeon can grow entirely new skin to place on your face, but until then, you're going to have to settle for the fact that there is only so much you can do. You can look fabulous at forty, or fifty, or sixty; you just may not look twenty-five or thirty.
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