Society's Obsession with Plastic Surgery

In this the 3^rd installment of my Obsessions Series, I want to cover societies obsession with plastic surgery in general. We will explore the most common and popular forms of plastic surgery, some of the horror stories that are involved with those types of surgeries, and what you need to know before going under the knife. In my first two installments I briefly touched on a couple of types of plastic surgery. One involving men and the other involving women for the most part. Those types will be discussed further in this piece.

Plastic Surgery History

I've wondered often what is the history behind plastic surgery, when was plastic surgery decided upon as the best thing to do to improve ones self, or to make changes to anomalies that we did not like about ourselves. According to Emedicine the first mention of plastic surgery can be found in ancient text from a Hindu background. These texts are estimated to be over 2600 years old and mention "surgeries" to change the ears, lips, and noses of some of the wealthiest people of the time. Also according to Emedicine the term plastic surgery as we know it was not used until the year 1818 by Von Graefe when he conducted the first "modern" rhinoplastik. Over the years of course techniques, medicines, and a better knowledge of how the human body works and heals has came a very long way. As mentioned above we can trace some form of plastic surgery back in history to different cultures with different "specialties". Emedicine points out that the Egyptians and Indian cultures used plastic surgery around 3000B.C. and mainly used surgeries to reconstruct nasal fractures. These early methods of plastic surgery although it is unclear how the techniques spread to different cultures continued to grow through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Statistics of Plastic Surgery

After generations of innovations and accomplishments in the field of plastic surgery, there are numerous statistics for us to observe and learn from. According to Oregon Health and Science the top five plastic surgery procedures are breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries, facelifts, liposuctions, and nose reshaping. They also report that in the last 10 years the rate of plastic surgeries has increased by at least 31%. Oregon Health and Science continues with liposuction procedures rose 313% from the years 1992 through 2001. Also they say that since 1992 that the instance of breast augmentations has increased an amazing 533%.

The top surgeries for men and women differs somewhat. The top surgical procedures for women are breast augmentation, eyelids, facelifts, liposuction, and nose reshaping. Although for men some of the surgical procedures are the same, there are a couple of differences. The top procedures for men are breast reduction, eyelids, hair transplants, liposuction, and nose reshaping.

Whas11 the increase in what they call "lunch time procedures" such as botox and chemical peels have been on a steady increase. Due to the quickness of these procedures, you can have them done during a lunch break and be right back to work afterwards with minimal discomfort. Whas11 also points out that the increase in procedures is believed to have to do with the prices and availability. With payment plans available that make the procedures more accessible, along with the increased acceptance in society to these procedures. The procedures that have seen a decrease over time are those of rhinoplasty, fat injections, and laser skin resurfacings.

Available Procedures

Let's start at the top of the body and work our way down for the available procedures. On the face and head area there are many options. You can have hair transplants, nose jobs, eyelid lifts, facelifts, cheek implants, you can get new lips, you can have procedures on the neck area to decrease the appearance of lines and wrinkles. You can also have pretty much an entire new face with these procedures depending on what you have done.

The torso area can be changed with breast reduction, breast augmentations, liposuction (this can be done on many areas of the body), you can have implants to increase your pecks, and arm muscles. You can also have implants to give the appearance of the 6-pack Abs.

On our legs we can once again have liposuction on various areas, we could also choose to have calf implants to give our legs a more muscular look. There are procedures for our feet and toes as well.

Basically if there is any part of your body that you are not happy with, comfortable with, or if there is an area with a deformity there is a surgery to enhance, change, or make all of our body look better. There are also surgeries to change the private areas of our bodies such as penis enlargements and procedures to make a woman's vagina seem virgin again.

Horror Stories of Plastic Surgeries

There is always the off chance that you will get a less experienced surgeon. Even with an experienced surgeon there are risks with all surgeries. There are many things that could go wrong during and after these procedures. There is the chance of having allergic reactions to medicines used during the surgery, as well as a small chance of having an allergic reaction to the materials used during your procedures. The chance of death during a plastic surgery are small, but should still be considered.

You should also be prepared for dissatisfying results after your surgery. The look you maybe going for is not necessarily the results you will achieve.

You can view some of the horror stories of plastic surgery on several websites, and see testimonials of these procedures as well. Viewer discretion is advised when viewing these sites. Some of these sites are:

One site to view a few of the mishaps can be found on the

On FDA website, there are a few pictures of different problems associated with breast augmentation.Smart Plastic Surgery you can view before and after photos of many procedures, some are good and some not so good.

Discovery Health also has an extensive list of before and after photos.

Awful Plastic Surgery shows some of your favorite celebrities before and after photos. Some are good, some are not.

This Is London has more gone wrongs with celebrities as the examples.
For the sake of staying somewhat "clean" with these links, you can conduct your own search for plastic surgeries gone wrong for more examples.

It all falls down to doing your own research and asking the right questions when going in for a consultation before any procedure. Be sure to ask to see before and after photos of the surgeons work, ask what types of complications they have seen, ask how many surgeries they have completed, and ask for references. Also do not be embarrassed to ask around your group of friends and their group of friends about the best surgeons. Chances are you know someone along the way that has had a procedure before and can steer you in the right direction.

Before doing any procedure be sure you are doing the procedures for yourself and not for someone else. Make sure you have an understanding to all aspects, and are prepared for anything when it comes to your surgery.

Best advice RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! Cover all ground when it comes to your choice.