What kind of people consider cosmetic surgery?

What kind of people consider having cosmetic surgery and why?

What is normality? Our perceptions are altered by the media, movies and even ‘selfies’! Do you feel self-conscious about your appearance? Have you considered surgery? Your visual appearance may be outside of the scope of what is considered normal. Do you find that it affects your lifestyle, work or even relationships? People in the public eye, newsreaders, celebrities, Hollywood stars, divorcees and widows are pressured look and feel their very best.

Facial and Body abnormalities may be caused by a variety of causes, Birth defects, such as cleft palates, scarring as a result of accidental damage, developmental abnormalities such as irregular breast size and lastly the largest group, people who would like to change their appearance due to ageing features.

This video blog by world famous surgeon Mr Dai Davies of cosmetic surgery partners addresses such issues; what kind of people need and pursue corrective plastic and cosmetic surgery?

Video transcript:

Hello my name is Dai Davies FRCS (Plast) and I am part of Cosmetic Surgery Partners, London. I’d like to talk to you about why people might want to have cosmetic surgery, most of us want to look normal – and what is ‘normal’ is a big question in itself. However we all watch adverts, television and watch movies where the media uses normal looking people, they don’t have very large noses or very big breasts and so just by this constant visual stimulation every day we all have a reasonable idea of what normal is.

So if we have been left with a part of our body being outside of what you would consider as normal you may well be self-conscious about it. Most people can overcome that and get along with life quite nicely. I’m not going to tell you what I’m self-conscious about but we all have something, however a few people are so self-conscious about their appearance that it starts to impinge on their normal daily routine and lifestyle. The sort of person might be someone with a big nose who will continually be talking with their nose covered or when they draw up at traffic lights they don’t like to be seen from the side, so they hide their nose from people in the car next door. Now these are small things but some people go beyond that it affects their relationship, they feel that people are constantly looking at their nose and their life becomes blighted. They are the people that seek help.

They may go to their doctor and their doctor will say; there is nothing wrong with their nose, it’s not a problem. Some patients will be referred to a psychiatrist for psychotherapy or for treatment of depression and other will come to seek the help of a plastic and cosmetic surgeon for surgery.

How can these abnormalities appear?

They can be as a result of a birth abnormality, the classic example being a cleft lip and off course we try as plastic surgeons to restore the appearance of the lip and the nose to look as normal as possible so it does not draw comment.

Developmental abnormalities

The abnormality may be a developmental abnormality, for example ‘bat ears’ people whose ears stick out (who commonly get referred for Otoplasty surgery). People with small breasts, particularly after having children or people with large breasts.

Facial and body abnormalities due to accident.

Those who develop an abnormal appearance as a result of accident. So they may have a very livid scar across their cheek or a bent nose from having broken their nose. We know that people with facial abnormalities in that way go in front of judge for a misdemeanor the may get a longer sentence because they look like they are going to cause trouble. This may sound like a far fetched fantasy but it’s a fact. If you want to collect money on the street corner ,send out someone with a facial abnormality and they’ll collect more money, so the appearance is important

The aging face & body

Lastly there is the big group, who through aging, for various reasons would like to make themselves look and therefore feel younger. I’m thinking in particular of people in the public eye, newsreaders are a classic example, tv presenters and celebrities. Equally, ladies who may have become divorced or widowed can feel that they are under pressure; it is a competitive market, if I can put it that way, and they want to look and feel their very best.

So there are various reasons why people want to have cosmetic surgery. There’s no reason for an otherwise normal psychologically sound person not to have cosmetic surgery and it’s a shame that many people don’t have the support from their family or friends even their GP’s to undergo such surgery!

– Mr Dai Davies FRCS 2014