Plastic Surgery - Had Any? Opinions?

[susiebk]

I have, though not intentionally.  Here is my sort of funny story.  When I was in high school, nose jobs were all the rage.  My dad had one (I liked his original nose better - it was more manly).  His wife had one.  My best friend was scheduled to have one, and she didn't want to do it alone, so, being the good friend that I was, I asked my dad to take me for a consult.  Well, that was enough for me to know that I wanted no part of it whatsoever.  My friend had her surgery and it came out nice, although she had looked fine before too.

A year went by and I was involved in a car crash.  I was fine, but one small part of me wasn't - you guessed it, my nose.  What had before been a nice to have became a necessity.  Either that or get used to my nose being over on one side of my face.  So I waited the requisite month for the break to heal and had the corrective surgery, along with a few minor tweaks.  I guess I made the right decision when I didn't have the original surgery, or else this would have been my second surgery, and the first would have been ruined when my face met the steering wheel (me bad - no seat belt).

In general, I do not feel that cosmetic surgery is worth the risks, which include death.  Also, many people believe that they will feel differently (better about themselves) afterward when often they don't, and then they become depressed.

What do you think?

[serious crayons]

A year went by and I was involved in a car crash.  I was fine, but one small part of me wasn't - you guessed it, my nose.  What had before been a nice to have became a necessity.  Either that or get used to my nose being over on one side of my face.  So I waited the requisite month for the break to heal and had the corrective surgery, along with a few minor tweaks.

When I was young, I always hoped this would happen to me! 

I've always hated the fact that in our culture normal aging is seen as a disease to be "fixed" surgically. I especially hate that what's considered unattractive aging, especially in women, occurs only about halfway through life! And it would be so ironic and sad and awful to die or be permanently injured as the result of voluntary plastic surgery.

That said, now that I'm in that second half myself I can't help but be affected by cultural attitudes. So sure, I wish I could "fix" the age-related "flaws" I see in the mirror. I can understand why people get cosmetic surgery. But for myself I hope I will never have actual surgery -- to be anesthetized, have my face cut up, to wind up bruised and swollen and wearing bandages for weeks, etc.

On the other hand, I have nothing against Botox, injectable fillers, dermabrasion, lasers, chemical peels or any other non-invasive procedure that doesn't involve full anesthesia, cutting, or long healing times.

[Brown Eyes]

Well, I definitely had "unintentional" plastic surgery.  For me it was when I was 8 years old.  This all came about because when I was 4 I broke my nose by falling off a swing directly onto my face! Yikes!  And, I had a terribly broken, deviated septum as a result so that I could hardly breathe out of my nose following that accident.  But, according to doctors, at age 4 I was too young (for reasons that I don't recall) to have corrective surgery.  For some reason, 8 seemed to be the appropriate moment of maturity to have the correction.  So, they rebuilt my nose inside.  There was almost no cosmetic aspect to that surgery.  Breaking my nose didn't seem to impact its shape too much. 

So, that's not a very excititng plastic surgery story.  There are lots of aspects of it that I hardly remember.  I think I may have sort of blocked some of that out from my memory a bit.
 

[serious crayons]

I think the thing that creeps me out the most is when young, attractive women get plastic surgery so they can look even more perfect.

Once I stumbled upon a website that was this woman's journal of getting a plastic surgery procedure. It was one where they run a thread under your skin and tighten it, so it holds up the flesh. This woman wrote about pain and swelling and various complications she had, including one where the threads poked back out of her skin and started bleeding and she had to go back in and get them fixed, etc. It sounded pretty awful.

But then I came upon a picture of the woman. She was gorgeous -- she looked like a model. So after seeing the picture I thought, well, she did get pretty good results, I guess I can see why she did it. Then I read the caption. You guessed it -- it was her before picture.

[serious crayons]

Yes, some people do not seem to understand that they are attractive, for whatever reason.  Have you ever seen one of those people (there are a fair number of them in South Florida) who have had so much surgery that they don't look real anymore?  I think it is so sad.

Yes, I have seen those people. Sad, but also kind of scary.

As for the already-pretty woman getting the threading procedure, I got the impression she was one of those people who understands they are attractive (she was in her late 20s, I'd say, with very glamorous makeup and hair), but are lured by the idea of looking even more perfect.

I think our celebrity culture, where you see lots of very young women -- already pretty enough to be stars -- getting plastic surgery,  promotes the idea that people should go for as much physical perfection as money can buy.

[forsythia12]

well, i for one, need a breast lift!  apparently a breast lift is also like a tummy tuck, so i'd benefit!!!
lol!
sorry, but having kids did a number on my boobs! 
but i would never never get plastic surgery.  too scared.
have you seen Tara Reid?  her stomach was butchered! 
anyways, i just do the best i can with what i've got.  excersize helps, and tones areas i'm not happy with.

as far as the face.  well, it ain't perfect, but it's too risky, and too expensive to do anything about it.  i think only thing that's ever appealed to me was some  dental surgery, cosmetic of course.  my teeth bug me, but still, i wouldn't have it done.
not having money also makes the decision for me!
i would not want my kids to ever go through it, so i'm hoping by not doing it is setting a good example.

again, i'm speaking only about voluntary cosmetic surgery, not surgery that fixes broken bones, or scars, or disfunctioning body parts.

[Lumière]

I saw one or two episodes of "Extreme Makeover" and though some of the procedures performed on these individuals look very scary, they all pretty much look perfect and gorgeous during their "big reveal" - when they show their 'new' selves to their family and friends.  I think that show is the biggest commercial for plastic surgery I've ever seen, lol, ... anyway..

There are plenty of young women out there who are beautiful, but who still seek to be perfect barbiesque beauties..
I remember watching a TV show called "Skin Deep" quite a while ago - the segment I saw was about a 16 year old girl getting breast implants... I remember thinking:  (a)  Isn't there an age limit to some of these procedures, (b)  She is 16, for pete's sake, aren't breasts still growing at that point? 

I think our celebrity culture, where you see lots of very young women -- already pretty enough to be stars -- getting plastic surgery,  promotes the idea that people should go for as much physical perfection as money can buy.

I wish we weren't so celebrity-obsessed in the first place.
I wish all magazine covers were forced by law to print a disclaimer on the front:
"Please be advised: Cover model enhanced with studio lighting, photoshop, airbrushing, etc, as well as a pound of make-up.  Model did not wake up this morning (or any other morning for that matter) looking as shown on cover photo."   

[serious crayons]

I wish all magazine covers were forced by law to print a disclaimer on the front:
"Please be advised: Cover model enhanced with studio lighting, photoshop, airbrushing, etc, as well as a pound of make-up.  Model did not wake up this morning (or any other morning for that matter) looking as shown on cover photo."   

Here are two excellent videos showing the difference between what models look like in real life and what they look like in commercial photos. The first one, by Dove cosmetics, is particularly good because it's about both makeup and photoshopping. The second one focuses on photoshopping -- one of several on YouTube like it.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXf8fr0Kp3Q[/youtube]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4wI_o8gyxA[/youtube]

[forsythia12]

omg i wouldn't even know that was her in video #1!

[delalluvia]

I take issue with the overwhelming retouching/photoshopping done by the media.  It gives us such a distorted view of reality.  The Dove one I'd seen before and it is basically showing that the people you see in ads don't really exist.  No one looks like that.  The second vid is showing the magic of retouching.  Like the first vid, there's really nothing wrong with the way these people originally looked - they were just 'cleaned up' to a degree that's not real.

As for surgery, if someone wants plastic surgery to make themselves feel better about themselves, then more power to them.  It's not ME going under the knife.

But I do think in some cases it's like false advertising.  That show "Extreme Makeover' for example.  I watched one couple turn from geeky low self-esteem Weight Watcher graduates into Brad Pitt and Helen Hunt.

I can just imagine them having kids and their kids growing up wondering why they have receding chins, no cheekbones, jughead ears, big beaky noses and tiny breasts when their parents look like Ken and Barbie dolls.

An explanation won't help their kids' self-esteem at all.  You know how kids look up to looking like their parents.  They'll expect to look like Ken or Barbie and wonder why they end up looking like Granny Babushka from the old country.

I know why even young women undergo plastic surgery - last I read, plastic surgeons were recommending a lifetime series of tweaking

e.g. get ABC done in your 20th decade, get XYZ done in your 30th decade, LMN done in your 40th decade, etc.

So that you don't go into the hospital looking like an old battle-axe one day and come back to work 6 weeks later looking like a New You.  The idea is to tweak yourself over your lifetime, so you always look youthful and it's not an obvious thing you're getting 'help'.  There's less traumatic operations and more minor ones.

I need to get my deviated septum fixed, because 85% of the time, day and night, I can't breathe through my nose.  But so far, I'm more interested in paying for European vacations than a sinus scouring and breaking/resetting of my nose.

I can't say that I buy into the cultural youth thing, but I don't think wanting gravity to not take so vicious a hold is too much.  I'm not asking for Breasts of Doom or the skin of 10 year old, I'd just like to not sag in some places when I've done nothing to deserve it except exist past my evolutionary shelf-life.