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Plastic surgery does big business all over the world. Some people pay large sums of money to look a certain way. However, these procedures can come with risks as well.
If you find you don’t like what your surgeon did, you might look into how to prove malpractice in cosmetic procedures. These extreme cases happen sometimes. More often, though, you may feel disappointment with your appearance without necessarily having any legal recourse.
In this article, we’ll talk about the potential plastic surgery risks and rewards. You should understand them very well before you even think of having a surgeon do some work on you.
What Does “Plastic Surgery” Mean?
Plastic surgery means many kinds of surgery that improve your appearance. Improving the appearance of the tissues or skin falls into this category. The term gets its name from the ancient word “plastikos,” meaning “to mold or give form.”
Plastic surgery happens at hospitals, clinics, or in private doctors’ offices. It can cost a great deal of money in some instances, though small, simple procedures don’t usually cost very much.
Does Plastic Surgery Ever Have a Legitimate Medical Purpose?
When many people talk about plastic surgery, they think about someone getting it for cosmetic reasons. While it’s true that happens quite often, you may also have a more legitimate medical reason if you have a doctor perform a procedure on you.
For instance, you may have burns or scars, and you want to make them disappear or look less noticeable. You may have unsightly birthmarks that you want a doctor to remove or cover up. If you have skin cancer that has impacted your appearance, plastic surgery can sometimes help with that.
Other individuals have plastic surgery if they want to cover up or completely remove a tattoo that they now regret getting. You might have a doctor reshape your facial bones following an accident.
Others might have abnormally shaped outer ears that they want modified. They may want the correction of a birth defect, like a cleft palate or lip.
Following lifesaving tumor removal, you might get plastic surgery to reshape your breasts or some other body part. Head and neck defects following car crashes might require it as well.
Any time you have a serious cut, tear, or abrasion of the skin, you can possibly get plastic surgery and have the marks look less noticeable. In severe or extreme cases, you may need not a single plastic surgery session, but many of them.
What Kinds of Plastic Surgery Happen Most Often?
Plastic surgery might involve a little nip and tuck job for cosmetic purposes. If you have enough money, you can go to a clinic that resembles a spa.
You might pay top dollar to get a procedure that you feel improves your personal appearance. However, just as often as someone pursues cosmetic surgery for reasons of vanity, you might have someone who saw their features badly damaged in an accident. To ever look close to what they consider normal again, they may feel cosmetic surgery gives them the best chance.
What Rewards Might You See from Plastic Surgery?
If you can find a doctor who makes this their specialty, you might feel that you look 100% better after a plastic surgery session. Many individuals who have money that divorce their current spouse might get plastic surgery if they want to look younger. They might get a procedure that makes wrinkles less obvious.
They may get their breasts or buttocks raised so that they don’t sag as much. As someone ages, gravity makes itself known. That’s natural, but some people might not like the result. They will pay virtually any amount of money to fight against the aging process.
Others get plastic surgery because they want to modify their appearance to satisfy a particular fetish. You can often find plastic surgeons who will modify your ears so that you look more like an elf or sprite. Others try to modify their features so that they resemble cats.
In more instances, you will see facelifts, tummy tucks, and the like. They’re relatively common these days, and you can probably find a doctor to do them in both the US and abroad.
What About the Potential Risks?
However, if you pursue an idealized image for your body, and you don’t use the best doctors, you might end up with a result that you don’t like. All surgery carrier risks. If you don’t care about those risks and decide that you want to look a certain way, regardless of the consequences, you may not like the face that looks at you in the mirror when you wake up post-surgery.
In some instances, people die during or after a plastic surgery procedure. You may also have a situation where you like the way you look at first, but then your appearance changes dramatically in the days, weeks, or months afterward. If you used a less credible doctor or went to a dubious medical facility, these results become more likely.
Should You Move Forward with Plastic Surgery?
Something like a small tummy tuck probably doesn’t come with that high of a risk these days, particularly if you use a credible surgeon. Many clinics and doctors now perform these procedures, so they’ve reached commonplace status.
However, if you decide that you want something more extreme, or you use someone who doesn’t have the proper medical credentials, you never know if you might get the results you wanted. In some instances, you can put your health or even your life at risk.
Some people don’t seem to care about that. If they don’t like the way they look, and they have enough money, they might willingly die to attain an idealized version of themselves.
You can always decide what you want to do with your own body. If you’re pursuing drastic action because you dislike your physical appearance so much, though, you may want to reconsider your priorities.