The Cosmetic Surgery Debate

Is cosmetic surgery just a way to "fix" our flaws?

A 2004 study shows that over 11.9 million cosmetic procedures were performed in that year alone. This is nearly a forty-four percent increase since 2003.

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The debate about plastic surgery has been a controversy ever since it's been around; everyone feels differently about the subject. Some people feel its simply a way to express oneself, like makeup or body modification (tattoos, piercings, etc.), and some people feel as if it's unhealthy and a gateway to a never-ending addiction to "fixing" oneself, also know as perfectionism. Some love it and some feel that it should have never been invented, but to be quite honest, it's not such a horrible thing, especially in today's society. The only problem is that it has been taken too far, like with things such as breast implants and tummy tucks.

Some people are born with abnormalities that truly make them self-conscious, and cosmetic surgery helps those people with coming out of themselves and being confident. But today, things have gone too far. It's become a normal thing to "adjust" your body in ways it shouldn't be "adjusted". Things have gotten far out of hand in terms of plastic surgery, and studies have proven links between body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and plastic surgery. Numerous studies show that seven to thirteen cosmetic surgery patients have been diagnosed with a form of BDD.

Bulimia Nervosa has been the most common eating disorder among links cosmetic surgery because of a desire to "alter" their appearance until they reach a widely unattainable goal.

A recent study at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium distributed surveys on BDD to 266 patients seeking rhinoplasty over a sixteen month period; twenty percent of the patients had previously undergone the procedure. The study suggests that thirty-three percent of the patients had symptoms of BDD, which rose to a high forty-three percent of patients who were seeking the procedure for purely aesthetic reasons.

Over-the-top cosmetic procedures can not only lead to an eating disorder such as Bulimia, but they can also be quite dangerous in terms of medical health.

Surgery, no matter what the type, is always a dangerous procedure. There may be risks with things like anesthesia, necrosis and nerve damage. Let alone those dangers, there is also a risk of a procedure being unsuccessful or a patient being unsatisfied. Cosmetic procedures, on average, are expensive, painful and time-consuming, and when one goes through all of that just to be dissatisfied because of an unsuccessful procedure, it takes a big psychological toll.