I know many people think plastic surgeons are all about changing everything. I am not.
I was saddened by the recent Heidi Montag feature on People magazine. Here is a beautiful young girl who underwent a lot of surgery and procedures to change herself. Overlooking my opinion she aged herself by a decade and looks more masculine, the real issue is why? what motivated her? and why didn’t someone stop her?
I know many of you will read this with a grain of salt. How can a plastic surgeon not be about promoting plastic surgery? But there are different types of surgeons. I don’t like the culture now, where it seems people are becoming distortions and caricatures (just see the women on one of those reality shows, some don’t look human anymore); where everyone calls themselves plastic surgeons when they are not; where plastic surgeons spend more time marketing than taking care of patients and doing what we were trained to do; where people start to think about surgery when they barely hit 20. People are being encouraged to dislike themselves. Is it the old “girls with straight hair want curly hair, and those with curly want straight”? Or is it something different?
I am a plastic surgeon. I do surgery. But I talk women out of surgery. A lot of what I do is more “restoration” than “change.” I like natural. I like subtle. I like people to still look like themselves.
I want you to still be you when you are done.
Be happy with yourself. No surgery or change in your appearance will make you more popular, get a husband, or be more successful. (though it can get your breasts off your waistline and your eyelids out of hanging into your eyes.) Happiness comes from within, and we can’t do surgery for that.