It’s been said that repeat customers are the bedrock of a successfully run business. You get them in, and you get them to come back – again and again if you can. This works pretty well with retail companies and some restaurants. But what about cosmetic surgery? There are estimates that put the number of people returning for further cosmetic procedures after their first at around 33%. What is unclear is how many of these people are coming back in for BOTOX® or other injectable fillers, which need to be redone if you want to keep the look, and how many of them are coming in for a nose job, then breast augmentation, and then a tummy tuck.
When we think about the types of people who are the best customers cosmetic surgeons can have, we automatically think of movies stars. And many of them have had numerous procedures done. This seems to be par for the course if you’re a movie star. You might also know of a few “normal” people who like what their surgeon did with their eyelids and now want that doctor to work on two or three other places on their body.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
When people hear the old platitudes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or that beauty is only skin deep, many take it to heart. However, there are some whose eyes see a skewed perspective of what is beautiful about their self, and it’s often only the skin they can imagine, and they are the only beholder of that beauty.
BDD is a mental disorder is a mental condition where individuals are excessively preoccupied with how their body looks. The physical imperfections they find may be real, to an extent, but are often imagined. And they imagine that they look awful all the time. No matter how often people with BDD are reassured that they look fine they’ll just find something else wrong.
Having BDD in today’s culture can’t be easy. Everywhere we look there are pictures of beautiful people in television and magazine ads, or in the movies. Or perhaps culture helps to perpetuate and drive the number of people with BDD up.
It’s been noted time and again that the number of people getting cosmetic surgery has gone up dramatically. We hear stories of young people getting breast or cheek augmentation because they want to look like the stars. However, how do we know when one person’s desire for rhinoplasty is just another procedure in a laundry list of things they want to get done? Furthermore, how do we know their nose job is the only one they’re going to get? When do the cosmetic surgeons step in and say enough is enough?
Why Worry?
We’ve noted here that it is important to be in the right frame of mind when going in for cosmetic surgery. We’ve also noted that it is an individual choice. However, there are a small number of people who believe that cosmetic surgery is the only way to true happiness. They believe that their lives will be so much better after they get their eyes done or their chin augmented. But maybe these people have a problem. Because what we’re seeing is these people are just the latest casualties of either a) societal pressure to look good, or b) a new thing to be addicted to, much like drugs (though, obviously, not exactly), or perhaps both. And many people have come out of the procedure with a feeling of buyer’s remorse.
The Most Visual Examples
Look for botched, or excessive, cosmetic surgery on the Internet, and you’ll find a number of websites that have a page on “the worst.” These examples are never of our neighbors and friends, but of some pretty famous people. And the most popular bad examples are Joan Rivers, Michael Jackson, and the infamous “cat woman,” Jocelyn Wildenstein. These people haven’t just had one botched surgery that the media focuses on; these people have had more surgeries than we can count. It might be understandable if some people feel a sense of schadenfreude when looking at how horrible some stars behave and look, but it must be remembered that there is possibly an underlying illness they have. One might question why they keep going in for the surgery, but another question might be, who performs these surgeries know full well there might be a problem? We’ll save that for another day.
Until then, if you would like to know how cosmetic surgery can help to enhance one or more areas of your body to improve the way you look, please contact an experienced cosmetic surgeon in your area. Also, remember that responsibility regarding this decision belongs to you.
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