Plastic Surgery, is it worth it?
I’m pretty sure you have all laid in your beds thinking, “What would I be like if I changed my nose, pinned back my ears, had my eyelids done, my stomach fat all gone, breasts implants and anything else I don’t like about myself, changed?” Surely there’s no way to do this... EXCEPT FOR... PLASTIC SURGERY, TO THE RESCUE, or is it?
My name is ______ and my topic will be about, you guessed it, Plastic Surgery, Is it Worth It? Plastic Surgery, you’ve heard about it, seen it, shuddered at it, and maybe even looked at it without knowing. Let’s start with the definition, Plastic Surgery; pretty much has nothing to do with Plastic. The term is actually from the Greek word “plastikos” which means “To mould or take shape,” which in this case, THAT makes more sense. The definition of Plastic Surgery is any surgical or non-surgical procedure performed for the improvement of a body part or to enhance the shape and appearance of some part of the body. So I think we have the definition down right? WAIT! I almost forgot one, evil, word. Botched is pure evil to hear when you have plastic surgery. It’s a term that means when a plastic surgeon messes up the surgery and it goes horribly wrong, they call it a botch.
Alright, so we got both of those definitions in our head for good? Now onto some random facts about Plastic Surgery; there are two types of plastic surgery, Non-surgical, like Botox or laser hair removal, or surgical, like breast implants or nose reshaping. In 2005, nearly 11.5 MILLION procedures were performed in the United States alone. The top five surgical procedures for 2005 were Liposuction, Breast Augmentation, Cosmetic eyelid surgery, Nose Reshaping and Tummy tucks, I still think that these procedures are still standing to this day. The top five NON-surgical procedures were Botox injections, laser hair removal, hylaform, microdermabrasion and chemical peels are the most popular. I think you would guess this next fact; that women had nearly 10,500,000 of the total cosmetic surgeries, and men, well you had a whopping 985,000. What? We women have to look good. Did you know that last year, Americans spent approximately 12.4 billion on these types of surgeries? TWELVE POINT FOUR BILLION! JUST for plastic surgery! Do you know what that money could do? You could build houses, give to hundreds of charities, put it to good use, but guess where that money went. Right up people’s noses; literally.
I think we had enough facts for now, so on to the next topic, WHY do people do this?
Actually in the beginning, Plastic Surgeons say that their patients are actually a bit reluctant to do surgery at first, but if the surgery is a success, their self esteem and self-confidence improve tremendously. These people know that a simple change to their body part that they see as wrong or the others around them feel that are wrong, will “improve” themselves so they will correct whatever is wrong, to feel better about themselves.
I think we should move on from all this self-loathing, and head into the real surgery and the healing process.
There are a lot of different procedures and of course, they have different prices, healing processes, symptoms, procedures and how much time they have to heal. So I’m going to only touch on different types of procedures for now.
A facelift, one of the most popular surgeries that restores a more youthful appearance to your face and gets rid of the most visible wrinkles and seems to get rid of any signs of aging, cost $5,000 to $13,000 and the length of the procedure is 3-4 hours. The “down” time is 2 weeks, and the recovery time is 4-6 weeks. The discomfort level is moderate but can be controlled with pain medication. So let’s now go under the knife…
During a facelift, the surgeon will prepare and make the final incisions based on what is needed and what was requested. If you are having just a basic face lift, then in general the only incisions will be made at your hairline and at the base of both ears. When the surgeon is finally in there, he sculpts, squishes, and moves around the fat along the cheekbones as well as doing some resculpting here and there. Then he will pull the skin back and reposition the underlying tissue and muscle before redraping the skin back over the face and pulling the sag skin out and tightening it. Now he will stitch the incisions up and cut away the excess skin. If the incisions are in the correct place, the scars will be almost unnoticeable and will heal. But if it’s incorrectly, the skin will appear too tight and your ear lobes may be missing.
I’ll talk about one more different type of surgery, Rhinoplasty, or mostly called “Nose reshaping.” It costs usually $6.5k to $9k and over. There are two types of ways to do this procedure, open rhinoplasty, where the external skin between the nostrils is cut horizontally, which allows the surgeon to easily access the areas of the nose where it needs surgery. There is usually an extra incision on the nose, but it is not visible once you recover.
Closed rhinoplasty is when the skin between the nostrils is not cut and the surgeon instead makes an incision INSIDE the nose; then he does whatever he needs to do. Yeah, so isn’t that SOOOO interesting? –sarcasm- How does it feel to have people in your flesh if you ever had surgery?
The healing process is pretty long and annoying for anyone who has a pretty busy life style and can’t take a break because on average, surgical procedures have about a 4-6 week “recovering time.” And two weeks of “low” down time; it means to lie down for awhile and not do anything at all. Usually in this time, they have their head elevated on a pillow and often applying ice packs or cold compresses to reduce swelling. Some patients feel puffy, have a dull headache and may experience tenderness or discomfort. But fortunately, these symptoms can be minimized with medication. Sometimes you might experience temporary numbness and itching in the healing process. A fun fact about healing is that all the bruising and scarring from the surgery may be camouflaged with make-up and most scars fade over time and become barely noticeable.
I think there are enough semi-positives for now, I think we need to get to the cons. Unfortunately in plastic surgery; there are the rare occasions in which a procedure ends up being a failure. These occasions are called; you guessed it, botched procedures. I think you remember what it means; also I think you remember what I said when the clients become happier and have more self-confidence; but when botched procedures happen, the effect is the exact opposite. Most of the patients go into a fit of depression or irreparable emotional damage.
Another con is that it may take several weeks or months before your face fully recovers from plastic surgery.
I think the biggest pro for surgery is that you become a younger looking, more beautiful, more confident you. And I think that rakes A LOT of people in, also the thought of celebrities doing it, also encourages it.
Now to get to the real subject, when looking for surgeons, look for very recommended doctors and find out for sure if they have a legit degree because fraud doctors can DESTROY you. If you have a REALLY bad feeling about how the procedure is going, just stop it. It won’t hurt just to put off the surgery for a few days and recheck on your surgeon’s background. I’ve seen on Maury where a model had scars, so she wanted them off, but she had a fraud doctor. He destroyed her life, he didn’t do the procedure correctly at all, and she had lumps that looked like small, black, tumours, and let me tell you, it was NASTY.
Another botched procedure story was when Lynn Dugan went in for a facelift, and she never thought she would ever be on the brink of death. Nonetheless, Lynn spent one month in intensive care and one in the hospital recovering from Necrotizing Fasciitis, aka a flesh eating disease. The medical team took action. Fortunately, she was fine after. Now onto prices; kaching-kaching. ;D
Let’s face it, no pun intended. If you want to change your look through cosmetic surgery, there’s always going to be a price. I know I’ve touched on some of them, but I don’t think that you got the full picture yet.
Breast augmentation costs $5,000 to $6,000, breast lifts cost $6k to $8.5k and breast reductions cost $8.5k to $9.8k. Isn’t that weird? It costs more to reduce your breasts than making it better or bigger? Want me to stop talking about BREASTS? Fine, let’s go onto more common surgeries.
Ear surgery cost $2.5k to $6.5k and eyes cost $3.5k to $6.5k. Forehead lifts cost 3.5k to 5.5k, earlobe repairs costs $400 to $600 per earlobe, Chemical Peels are $650 to $800, and Body Lifts are 11.5k to 16.5k. I told you plastic surgery was pricey.
Few thing to always keep in mind when you think about having plastic surgery; is never, ever, have too much; I agree with one or maybe two procedures, but no more. I mean seriously, just look at celebrities. Need I say more? Another thing to keep in mind is to find is a much recommended good doctor, just remember that disease that the woman got. ANOTHER thing to know is never, EVER, GET ADDICTED. It will bankrupt you, make you look horrible, and it’s just… OH GOD EW. LOOK AT HER. SHE’S A MONSTER! RUN FOR THE HILLS, ugly.
Thanks for listening. biggrin
Augment = Increase in size. LULZ. ;D
Hylaform = Injectable wrinkle remover
Electrified Coco Puffs Community Member 
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