Plastic surgery has become increasingly popular over the years among both men and women opting for procedures for a number of reasons, including: boosting confidence and self-esteem, medical reasons, health reasons, reconstructive reasons, and aesthetic/enhancement reasons.
To be clear, plastic surgery is a broad term which encompasses a vast number of different surgical procedures. These procedures can be performed for both personal and medical reasons, but it is important to understand that not all plastic surgery is purely for aesthetic benefit.
Many people suffer from low self-esteem as a result of poor body confidence. Having confidence with your body shape can help to make you more confident and outgoing. For example, after massive weight loss either through diet or a procedure like gastric bypass surgery, some patients are stuck with loose hanging excess skin. In cases like these, plastic surgery can help remove or tighten up that excess skin to give the body it’s normal tone and appearance. Plastic surgery can help boost people’s confidence by making them feel more comfortable within their own skin, and help to correct features which they are unhappy with.
It is important to remember, however, the key word is “help”, as physical alteration through plastic surgery is not guaranteed to increase someone’s self-esteem or confidence. Cosmetic surgery won’t change your life. It won’t solve personal problems or make you look like someone else, but it may give you greater self-confidence and add to your sense of well-being. It is important that anyone considering surgery for these reasons discusses their motivation to go under the knife during a consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon. One must really consider and think about the other potential factors that could be contributing to low self-esteem, and look at what’s going on inside before making changes to the outside.
Besides purely aesthetic reasons, many people suffer health risks and ailments as a result of certain physical features. Correcting these through the means of plastic surgery can help to give the individual a healthier, and therefore happier, lifestyle. People who may have breathing problems, such as a deviated septum, or other deformities, either congenital (from birth) or from an accident, can alter both form (appearance) and function through surgery.
These aforementioned problems interfering with function are often categorized as medical issues, and are in need of repair. Reconstruction means, “To repair or to make anew.” To rebuild, but not necessarily as the original or as new. Reconstructive surgery can return both form and function to the body, and most importantly provide hope to those who are healing both physically and psychologically.
For example, plastic surgery for reconstructing the breasts after someone with cancer has had a mastectomy, can certainly be seen as a necessary medical reason. As a cancer diagnosis is devastating enough, reconstructing a woman’s breasts afterwards can change their lives forever, and help them rebuild and restore confidence after a hard fight. Cancer can spread, and affect other places in the body. So, with early detection, medically removing it during a mastectomy will decrease someone’s risk of the cancer spreading or coming back.
To learn more about the different medical reasons that people need plastic surgery, call Atlantic Center Surgery at (954) 983-1899 to request a consultation with Dr. Stelnicki, or request an appointment online.
