Why settle for your nose when you could have J.Lo’s?
As popular shows such as MTV’s “I Want a Famous Face” and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” have demonstrated, the world of plastic surgery can make it possible to ditch your honker in favor of your favorite celeb’s–or even exchange your entire bod.
And young people are embracing the opportunity to alter their appearances. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons indicates that cosmetic procedures among 19- to 34-year-olds increased 12 percent nationally in 2003 over the previous year, while procedures among patients under age 18 increased 50 percent.
Although many doctors agree that plastic surgery can be a helpful and acceptable way for young people to confront their self image issues, some have wondered if this trend reflects negatively on society and what it says about the younger generation’s obsession with looking perfect.
“The major reason people come in is because they look in the mirror and they feel they have an imperfection that troubles them, and they would like to improve it,” says Anthony Geroulis, a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Chicago. “Since science today can improve it, it’s a very logical sequence to have it improved.”
TV shows, however, are a different matter.
“To offer that kind of excessive treatment to an individual in a condensed version for the purposes of entertainment is not really appropriate,” says Richard Caleel, former president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery in Chicago. “It minimizes the fact that cosmetic surgery is real surgery, and that it should be undertaken with full information and be performed by qualified practitioners.”
But MTV says that’s one of the main reasons behind its show “I Want a Famous Face,” in which young people undergo plastic surgery to look more like the celebrities they admire.
Marshall Eisen, supervising producer of “Famous Face,” said MTV found that close to 2 million people ages 18 to 34 were undergoing cosmetic surgery every year. Many of them, he said, were bringing pictures of celebrities to their doctors to use as models for shaping a particular body part.
“We have a responsibility to accurately share their experiences with our viewers,” Eisen said.
Caleel says cosmetic surgery is on the rise in Chicago, reflecting the national trend, and there also is an increase in the number of men having surgery.
Paul Wood, a 25-year-old financial trader from Lincolnwood who paid $4,700 for lower eyelid surgery two years ago, was originally turned down by a physician who said he was too young to have the procedure. But Wood sought out another doctor who would perform the surgery because he wanted to correct what he perceived to be a flaw in his appearance.
Aside from having to sleep upright in a chair for several weeks, he says the experience was not really a big deal.
“If it makes somebody feel better and they properly assess the risks, they should go for it,” Wood says.
But Wood has mixed feelings about the surge in TV shows about surgical makeovers.
“They bring cosmetic surgery into light and relieve some of the fears in people,” he says. “But I don’t think they adequately show the risks.”
And the risks are high, considering the drastic makeovers featured on the shows can be very invasive.
People on these shows represent the extreme side of surgery-seekers, Wood says.
“Wanting to look like a certain celebrity is a little weird. Most people are along the lines, ‘I felt–I wanted to correct something that had bothered me for a long time.’ “
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If I could just change my …
The increase in surgical procedures for people 18 and younger from 2002 to 2003:
Eyelid surgery +215%
Dermabrasion +99%
Breast reduction in men +51%
Upper arm lift +51%
Breast augmentation +24%
SOURCE: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLASTIC SURGEONS.
