5 Things You Can Do To Avoid Plastic Surgery Blunders

Once you've made the difficult decision to have cosmetic surgery, you'll have many more decisions before you and choices to make. Many people, believing that a surgeon need only be technically proficient to produce a superior and pleasing result, neglect to place appropriate importance on making the necessary preparations in choosing a procedure, picking a surgeon and following through with thorough aftercare.

Following these five directives, you should be able to avoid some major pitfalls of plastic surgery - and hopefully avoid looking like an emaciated, alien bobble-head doll.

#1 - Know what plastic surgery can and cannot do

Plastic surgery can reshape and redefine you face or body's entire aesthetic. There are many things, however, that plastic surgery cannot accomplish. Perhaps most importantly, if someone suffers from a body image disorder (called body dysmorphia), the odds are they will not be pleased with the results of cosmetic augmentation. Body dysmorphia distorts one's mental perception of their own body. Ethical surgeons will refuse to operate on someone suffering from a body image disorder and refer them instead to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Also, cosmetic surgery cannot hold back the hands of time, nor can it promise to erase decades of lines, wrinkles and sagging skin from your face. Certainly, plastic surgery can make a patient look fabulous and younger through the removal of certain lines and wrinkles, but there are no guarantees and surgery becomes progressively more difficult with each successive surgery - the surgeon will have less fresh tissue to work with and will have to deal with more scar tissue.

#2 - Have a plan and stick with it

If you have one or two things that bother you about your body or face, that's normal. To avoid having unnecessary surgery, you should make a list of everything you wish to address and stick to those areas only.

Cosmetic surgery is a big ticket item and, as with other high-priced items, there can be a great deal of sales and salespeople involved. If you go in not knowing what you want to address, then you may be sold on unnecessary procedures. You might also become more insecure as you will most likely be viewing images of former patients who have benefited from the surgeon's skills. It's important to maintain your individuality and not let momentary insecurity cloud your reasoning.

#3 - Consult directly with the surgeon before you choose to have the operation

Many clinics and surgeons today hire consultants and salespeople with little to no medical training to juggle their busy schedules. Sales is a part of capitalism and consumers, whether they realize it or not, are being pitched to several times each and every day. Still, it's the surgeons skill and talent you're paying for. You need to be able to speak to the surgeon before you choose to go under the knife. You need to be able to ask questions about what she or he will do if things go wrong, what sort of plan they have for giving you optimal results and what kind of guarantees they can grant you if you're not pleased with the outcome.

#4 - Follow all aftercare procedures you are assigned

Aftercare might the most important part of insuring a favorable result. The surgeon will almost certainly proscribe medication, give direction in changing bandages and their removal and give you tips on how to know if something is going wrong - i.e.: how to spot an infection in its early stages, how and when the incisions should heal, etc.

#5 - Be open and honest about your surgery

There are many benefits to being honest and telling others about your surgery. Most of these benefits are social; you can make it more socially acceptable to go under the knife and battle the age-old anti-body enhancement stigma and you may open a dialog about the condition that made you wish to have cosmetic surgery (premature balding, obesity, skin damage due to UV radiation, etc.) One of the personal benefits about telling others of your surgery is that it will enable you to better hold your surgeon accountable for the results. Some unethical surgeons depend upon the silence of patients to continue performing below expectations and, sometimes, operating in a dangerous manner. A surgeon that realizes you will be vocal about your operation and its results are more likely to perform at an optimal level and guaranty that, should you have less than desirable outcome, they will consolations and fix their mistakes.

Celebrities are not immune to making bad decisions, as is evidenced by Mike Rourke who is pictured above. If you make your choices in a wise and educated way, you can avoid the mistakes of others who've seen a surgeon's scalpel. Make the right choices and you can look and feel fabulous after your procedure.

5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Plastic Surgery

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.

Britain, Guard Your Daughters!

While men have become increasingly involved in plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures as they get older, women seem to have developed a reverse trend. Younger girls are increasingly desiring cosmetic surgery, especially in Britain where the cosmetic surgery market is booming.

According to a study conducted by Girlguilding UK, British girls as young as 10 are thinking about plastic surgery and are concerned with dieting. Many report feeling depressed because of their looks and wish to look older and garner sexual advances from boys. An increasing amount of young girls are getting their cues from teen fashion magazines.

One girl surveyed says, "When I was 11 I read a teenage magazine for the first time and that is when it kind of clicked, 'I should be like this'."

Emma Hughes, a 15 year-old girl from Britain reports wanting to have plastic surgery to be more like her idol, English fashion model, Jordan (Katie Price). Jordan has had extensive plastic surgery and has recently undertaken a "mommy makeover" and vaginal rejuvenation.

Emma's mother supports her daughter in her dream, not only in spirit, but also by working five jobs to pay for Emma's beauty treatments, tanning, and future cosmetic enhancements. Emma reports that she wants breast augmentation for enlargement, despite that she is already a 34F and her mother has already spent £15,000 on her daughter's spa treatments. Emma's too young to join a tanning salon, so her mother purchased a tanning bed for use in their home.

“I’m not worried about this tanorexia nonsense, or skin cancer from sunbeds. It hasn’t affected her health. It’s making her confident and beautiful. All the treatments will give her the edge. They’re going to help her be a star,” says Ashley Hughes, Emma's mother.

Although SFP is considered a pro-surgery site by some, we are, in actuality, a pro-patient site. We advocate making educated and mature decisions, and we feel that it's impossible to make a mature decision when your not mature yourself. It has been observed time and again, that young people have a very shaky grasp on the ramifications of their present actions on their future. While Emma may feel confident now, she may see that self-esteem plummet later if she or her mother are unable to maintain their extravagant spending. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of Emma's story is that her mother not only condones her daughters shallow behavior, but actively supports it. Not to mention the fact that neither of them are concerned with the possibility of Emma developing skin cancer from tanning - sun damage can be difficult to see, as it can occur at the deepest levels of skin.

Britain, it's time to open a dialog with your daughters. Not everything you see on TV, or movies, or magazines is appropriate behavior.

10 Questions To Ask Before You Opt For Plastic Surgery

The cardinal rule of cosmetic surgery is to gather as much information as possible before making your decision. It's never been easier to access a wealth of knowledge than it is today with the Internet. It shameful to think that, with so much information available, most people still make a pretty uninformed choice. You cannot close your mind to any possibility without researching all probabilities.

You should be able to answer all of the following questions before you go under the knife:

1. Am I ready for plastic surgery? (Be sure to ask yourself why you want to pursue cosmetic body alteration - much like weight loss, or any other body alteration, the people who are most pleased with their undertaking are those that made their initial decisions to do it with their own happiness in mind and not that of any outside force.)

2. Do I know what the procedure entails? (Once you have chosen a procedure, you may still have many options available - the worst thing you could do is let the surgeon choose for you; you have to live with the results, not them.)

3. What are the complications? (If the procedure is performed under general anesthesia, there is a risk of a possibly fatal complication, though that risk is rare - less than half of a percent, or 1 in 57,000 procedures ends with a fatal complication. Still, the risk is present.)

4. What are the arguments against the procedure?

5. Will the procedure work, even if the circumstances are not ideal?

6. Have I gotten a qualified surgeon's opinion? (You would do well to reinforce that opinion with a second and third opinion. Many non-cosmetic surgeons and other medical professionals can and will refer you to a quality surgeon, so ask!)

7. Have I chosen the right surgeon? (Locating a qualified and talented surgeon should be your priority. You should search for the very best that you can afford; if that means traveling elsewhere for a surgeon who produces results that you like, then you should consider traveling as a part of your plan. If you cannot afford the surgeon who you believe will produce the best results, then perhaps you should reconsider having the procedure until such a time when you can afford their services. After all, can you afford it if the surgeon makes a mistake? Above all, always remember that you are choosing a surgeon, not a clinic or a hospital - one is not just as good as another.)

8. Will I ever need a follow-up procedure? (Several procedures, including most implantations do not last a lifetime - most implants have a maximum life of about ten years before they'll need to be removed or replaced).

9. What kind of guaranty does the surgeon provide for the procedures? (The doctor cannot guaranty that something will not go wrong, but you should remember that YOU are the consumer and YOU are paying a great deal for your procedure. You should be satisfied and if you are not, the surgeon should make every reasonable consolation to ensure your satisfaction).

10. What is the after-care procedure? (some procedures will leave you out of commission for a while, and you may still need to follow instructions to ensure a quick and successful recovery).

Do your research and don't take the decision lightly. Death, although a freighting consequence, is but one possibility and the odds may be much greater that you will not be pleased with the aesthetic that the surgeon produces.

SFP often reports on celebrities, many of whom have made the wrong decisions in cosmetic surgery. We do this not out of malice, but illustrate the point that celebrities are people too. They make the same mistakes that you or I make, in and out of the operating room. These celebrities are, in my humble opinion, the exception and not the rule. Many celebrities, just like the millions of people that opt for cosmetic alteration every year, are satisfied with their procedures and look fabulous. If you make the right choices and ask the correct questions, you'll be able to say it along with us: plastic is fantastic!

Revolutionary Idea: Save Money On Food By Not Eating!

The are many good reason for an obese person to consider weight loss surgery, specifically the LAP-BAND® procedure. Among those reasons are: improved health and lifespan, increased energy, lower insurance premiums and the cosmetic and social benefits of being a more ideal weight for one's frame. The LAP-BAND® procedure is not without the risk of complications; which include infection, band slippage and pain - as with any invasive surgical procedure, there is a chance of encountering a fatal complication. The decision to have weight loss surgery should involve weighing the benefits against the risks.

Needless to say, being an opponent of deceptive marketing practices in the cosmetic surgery field, I was shocked to see an ad proclaiming, "Food Costs Soar. Eat Less. Save $$$! Feel Great with LAP-BAND®!" Poor grammar and bad marketing practice aside, saving money on food through an invasive surgery is like saving money on hats by having your head removed. Saving money on food expenses is also a "benefit" of anorexia. Perhaps, by a different side of the same token, counselors should begin lecturing bulimics on the fiscal irresponsibility of their disorder?

Trend Watch: Could Fat Banks Be In The Near Future?

Not long ago, we reported on the discovery of pluripotent, or multipotent stem cells (the kind of cells with the potential to become any other type of cell in the human body) in adult human fat, not unlike embryonic stem stem cells found in human fetuses in the article, Fat To The Future: Is Fat The Future Of Plastic Surgery? Because of this discovery, new uses for the fat left from liposuction are being found, both cosmetic and otherwise.

Before the discovery of embryonic stem cells and their importance, most parents chose to discard the umbilical cord and the blood containing the cells, like most people discard the fat from liposuction - getting rid of it was the point in the first place, wasn't it? Given the recent discovery of adult stem cells in fat, it shouldn't be too long before we start to see fat banks. It's gotta be a better idea than the Chilean artist that used his liposuctioned fat to fry meatballs.

What do you think? Should you start looking for a way to store your love handles once they've been sucked from your sides?

Children's Book Explains Parent's Plastic Surgery

My Beautiful Mommy follows the fictional story of a mother who explains her "mommy makeover" (the marketing-friendly name for a tummy-tuck and breast augmentation, though the breast augmentation isn't mentioned in the book as the author felt it would confuse children) cosmetic procedure to her seven year-old daughter, telling her that mommy isn't having the surgery because she's sick, but because she wants to be even more beautiful.

It's probably a good tool to help young children understand why a parent would undergo cosmetic surgery without being physically hurt, but I still think you'll need a great deal of luck to explain your vaginal rejuvenation surgery.

I'm still waiting for the sequel to this book - My Beautiful Daddy (Gets Married to My Fabulously Wealthy Daddy in California). A boy can dream, right?