Cosmetic Surgery

With television shows like Extreme Makeover, Nip/Tuck, and The Swan breathing down society’s neck each week, people feel the need to strive to fit the media’s standards of an ideal body.   In this era, cosmetic surgery represents an entertainment for its audience rather than a serious form of surgery.   Enhancement of beauty and health benefits attract patients into receiving cosmetic surgery.   On the other hand, costs, negative visual outcomes, and health risks deteriorate a person’s desire to undergo surgery.   Cosmetic surgery has many unforeseen and often disastrous consequences including side effects, whether major or minor, unwanted personal appearances, and extremely high prices.   However, some supports of cosmetic surgery claim that results remain beneficial to one’s health and personal appearance, mainly because of advances in new technology.

            With the popularity and great demand of cosmetic surgery rising, complications and tragedies occur in today’s society.   Short and long-term risks always come about with any cosmetic procedure.   Those with perfect health have a low possibility of complication. However, those with heart diseases, diabetes, or other chronic or acute diseases contain a higher chance of difficulty. In Straight Talk about Cosmetic Surgery, Arthur Perry states that “as cosmetic surgery becomes more and more popular, more and more reports of complications and even disasters will surface.” Some of these complications include silicone ruptures in breast enhancements as well as disproportioned faces after botox injections or facelifts.   As for disasters, deaths from surgeries like rhinoplasty or liposuction;   “[l]iterally hundreds of deaths across the country from liposuction over a five-year period in the 1990s” (28).   In the field of surgery, surgeons must remain alert and precise, for potential risks remain present. Each step can trigger problems if not prepared properly by the medical professionals.   Perry explains how surgeons... [continues]

Read full essay