Plastic Surgery Answers

The Price of Plastic Surgery

When it comes to aesthetics, let's face it. We live in an era where physical beauty is often sought before kindness, maturity, or even stability. The constant bombardment of advertisements from the media encourages it. The average American encounters roughly 3000 advertisements a day. Exposure to so many beautiful people who seem to obtain happiness from unchecked consumerism not only encourages us to buy, but also impresses upon us that a person's appearance runs neck and neck with financial assets or a loving home as a measure of overall worth. If bills in the wallet ranks higher than beauty, it is only insofar as money can be used to purchase expensive accessories to glam up the over all "appearance" package of person or the place they can afford to live. In today's sex obsessed and consumer-driven culture, appearance is what it is all about. It is not that other qualities aren't important, but first impressions count more so than they ever have before. In today's modern world, how much you can get, how fast you can get it, and how good it looks is what sets the initial bar for how we determine human value.

It is all very well to protest this trend, but it is impossible to be immune to it. Superficiality will always be superficial, but when it can get us the things we want (i.e. sex, power, freedom, attention, validation) optimizing physical potential is not necessarily shallow. In some ways it is the smart. Just like chasing that high-end job, getting that coveted spot in an advanced educational institution, or having the confidence to go after that perfect mate, cultivating our assets is what results in higher pay off. After all, this is a competitive world. Whether we accept it or not, we are in a race, and the best resources are in limited supply. Once we enter this world we have three choices: be a winner, become a winner, or accept what's left over when we lose or fail to compete. If you are the sort of person who wants the best out there (whatever that happens to be), you have to step up, and if you step up, you're going to have to come to grips with the reality that no matter how deep you are, appearance will give you an edge.

So far, this way of thinking could be limited to style of dress, posture, exercise and eating right. All of these things can maximize physical appearance and bring about positive changes in every day living.

What about plastic surgery? Is it going too far to cut the human body to pieces in order to reconstruct it to fit society's collective idea of glamorous? Should there be limits as to who can get plastic surgery, at what age, or for what reason? At the end of the day, this is a matter of opinion. Some argue that any change that isn't natural is a step in the wrong direction, while others argue that very little of the modern world is "natural," that potential is limitless, and that results are what determines whether or not a chosen path is right or not.

When choosing plastic surgery, people are motivated by one of four things:

The desire to look normal
The desire to look superior
The desire to alleviate physical discomfort
Medical necessity (such as removing cancerous cells from the skin)

It is important to distinguish between the different reasons the people get plastic surgery. Plastic surgery for medical reasons is rarely contested on moral grounds. A man, woman or child suffering from severe injury, infection, or cancer can be restored by the skill and technological breakthroughs of today's plastic surgeons and specialists. Likewise, many people seek plastic surgery as a means of relieving emotional embarrassment (the unfortunate results of an obvious abnormality) or physical discomfort (oversized breasts that cause back pain, etc.) Here the matter becomes a little more convoluted, but people who are really suffering from something that is easily fixable are generally applauded for choosing plastic surgery as a means to improve their lives.

However, the line can be blurred. Many people who suffer emotionally from some perceived physical defect or another often struggle more from low self-esteem or misinformation than "abnormality." And there is certainly a lot of misinformation out there. Most particularly is the idea of what it means to be "normal." Normality can be measured statistically in some cases, but even statistics can fail to cover natural differences. More important is the "idealized" version of "normal" that is spread by media, peer groups, and the surgeons who support their livelihoods on the consumerism of beauty. As a result, many people perceive their physical appearance to be "abnormal," ugly or freakish when in fact it is none of those things, statistically or otherwise. Furthermore, many people also choose plastic surgery in the belief that others will find them more attractive--especially members of their preferred sex--when statistically that also is not always the case.

It can't be denied that how we feel about ourselves has a direct correlation to how others see us, and many people rightly determine that how others see us depends largely on our looks. How we feel about how we look has a positive effect on how we feel generally. It's true that, psychologically speaking, knowing we look good also helps us feel good. This is affected by how we dress, how we stylize ourselves, and how we feel about our bodies when we present ourselves to the world. When it comes to plastic surgery, maximizing our physical potential is possible in ways it hasn't been in the past. Where unsavory features were once something to "put up with" or "feel positive about" it is now something that can be changed, often with relatively low risk.

This is not to say that plastic surgery is something to jump into. Plastic surgery requires considerable expense and life-long maintenance. In many cases, especially popular procedures like breast augmentation, plastic surgery is not a "fix-all" that is done once and forgotten about. A body that has been sculpted by a knife requires regular incisions to keep up the look. Like any surgery, plastic surgery also requires recovery time, and of course it limits or obliterates some natural functions of the body.

Furthermore, it is important to understand whether or not plastic surgery is really the solution to a perceived problem. When it comes to self esteem and "looking normal" the misinformation is vast and can be extremely misleading. "Normal" can not be qualified by comparison, especially comparison to idealized body types prominent in modern media, especially pornography (which is populated heavily by models that have undergone plastic surgery themselves). However, as exposure to unceasing visions of glamour increases and more and more people turn to plastic surgery to "normalize" their bodies, the danger is the formation of a cultural expectation that views "sculpted" as normal and "natural" as inferior.

Does this mean that plastic surgery for purely aesthetic reasons is wrong? Not necessarily. The technology is available, and like many things, the decision to go under the knife is a purely personal choice. However it is important to thoroughly understand the decision before making it. To that extent, it is recommended that those considering plastic surgery thoroughly investigate the procedure in terms of the requirements, recovery process and possible complications.

The candidate should also fully understand his or her reasons for undergoing surgery. Rationalizing the decision may result in guilt or dissatisfaction, so for something so expensive and possibly dangerous (as all surgery is potentially dangerous) make sure that you are being honest with yourself about your reasons. If you want bigger breasts because women deemed "attractive" everywhere seem to have them, don't give your doctor a different reason. Optimal results from plastic surgery require honesty and clear communication. Make sure you explain exactly what you want and why you want it. Ask questions about "normality" if "fitting in" is a motivation and do enough independent research that you feel comfortable with the integrity of the answers you receive.

The trend toward optimizing beauty isn't slowing in today's modern world. It is increasing with each passing year. Education is the best way to handle the changing world. If you find yourself considering plastic surgery, approach the possibility armed with information, not ideals, and make sure you fully understand the consequences as well as the potential benefits that come with such a procedure. A caring, qualified plastic surgery physician or dermatologist will provide you with a no-strings-attached consultation, a wealth of scientifically-researched information, and constructive advice before proceeding with any surgical operation.