From clearing lines to making female look young again, cosmetic sugeons are doing a roaring business throughout the world
PLASTIC does not necessarily mean Tupperware. Plastic is from a Greek word, which means mold. Plastic surgery is a kind of molding often used to correct the damage done by accidents or burns. Plastic surgery which is not done for medical reasons is called cosmetic surgery.
This surgery is supposed to make you more beautiful to others, and more so to yourself. It tries to mix and match some of your own features with others you would like to own. People are changing their noses, chins, eyelids, and belly buttons, right and left.
It is unbelievable, but it is true, that the cosmetic surgeons do have the measurements for a perfect face. They can tell you the ideal distance between eyes and nose, between one eye and the other eye, and between nose and lips.
I am surprised, however, that everybody who wants a change does not go for a perfect face. They want to change only one or two features of their faces they particularly dislike. Sometimes they want somebody else’s features on their face. Surgeons don’t object to that. They are there only to help them. One woman wanted to look exactly like the thousands of Barbie dolls. She came on television to tell that she was an ugly duckling before the cosmetic surgery and nobody threw a second glance at her. She claimed that after her surgery she had become very successful in her life. She was getting tremendous attention now, and that particular television interview was proof of that.
Surveys show that pretty people are given help readily and are rarely asked for help. Perhaps that is why so many people strive to be beautiful. There are girls who are ready to spend thousands to look like Princess Diana or like the fairytale Cinderella, and boys who want to look like Gregory Peck.
The process goes like this: a patient tells the surgeon what she wants done. She is shown new images on a computer. Using a computer, surgeons or their assistants are able to show patients the new feature on their old face. I think this a great advantage — nobody shows you computer images when they reconstruct your house or alter your dresses.
If she approves of the computer image, the surgeons draw lines on her skin similar to those a tailor draws on his fabric to show where the cuts will be made.
Cosmetic surgery is akin to tailoring. The materials might be different (instead of cloth, threads, beads and frills, plastic surgery involves skin, muscles, blood vessels, cartilage and bones, but the techniques are more or less the same — cutting, altering, and grafting is done in both. Grafting means taking skin from one part of the body and grafting it skillfully on to another. Then the surgeons cut, tuck, pleat and sew the skin until it is as close to the image as they can go. The last thing they do is make the newly-designed person pay the price. It’s only a bill, but normally for a huge amount.
To match the prices of the expensive surgery, the cosmetic surgeons have invented some very solid and fitting names for the procedures, for example face lifting is called rhytidectomy. Surgery on eyelids is called blepharoplasty. Then there is what laymen call the nose job, or a nasal contouring, but the professional name, which I don’t recall, is much grander sounding. The cost ranges from $2,500 to $10,000 and more.
I think someone should invent a more appropriate word for the plastic surgeon and for the person who gets these expensive alterations done. The words surgeon and patient are too inferior for them. My suggestion is that the doctor should at least be called a “cranioscopist,” who performs a “cranioplasty,” and the patient should be called a “cranoscopistient.”
Before you go for cosmetic surgery always talk to some one who has already gone through the process. Those who know the inside story, would tell you that you should not be misguided by the “too good to be true” image you saw on a computer. Always keep a margin of error.
Don’t take a friend with you. The friend might confuse you and between you too you might end with a Roman nose, slits of oriental eyes and the chin of an American comedian.
Take the before and after pictures with a pinch of salt. ‘After pictures’ are mostly taken after full makeup. They are the best results of the surgical procedures. It is obvious that nobody wants to show his failures and mistakes.
Plastic surgeon wouldn’t want to show a job gone bad — a nose looking like a rhinos’ or a lopsided eye. Would they?
Another word of caution! If you see pictures of some dazzling beauties in the surgeon’s office, you should know that they are unrelated to the job. They are there just to embellish the environment. You will see similar pictures in salons, spas and elsewhere.
One of my friends asked me, “Why do people want to spend so much money when they can live with their inner beauty?” I asked her another question in answer, “Why do people want to buy BMWs, when they can drive a second-hand car?”
“Oh, I see now, because they can afford it.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Then why is it that people who can buy BMWs and are plain looking do not go for cosmetic surgery?”
“Because, their beauty is their wealth.”
“I know you are not one of them and I can see that you are developing a lot of wrinkles. Why don’t you go and get rid of them?” She asked me.
“To tell you the truth,” I said, “I’m afraid that they would laugh at my laugh lines.”
