Nobody knows about cosmetic surgery better than Edward Mondeck and his two
children, ages 9 and 11. Rosemarie Mondeck, 39, decided to have a bit of tummy
fat removed after having two kids. She let the doctors use a new procedure
called tumescent liposuction. The patients are primed prior to surgery by
injecting large amounts of diluted local anesthetic and epinephrine, drugs that
shrink capillaries. They reduce bleeding and make it easier to suck fat out
according to doctors. After the drugs were injected, Rosemarie went into cardiac
arrest and died. “All she had was a fatty area above her bellybutton,”
states Edward. Look at what can happen. This goes to show you that cosmetic
surgery is not only dangerous, but can also result in death. Cosmetic surgery is
defined as a surgery that improves one’s self-image by correcting a certain
area of the body that the patient finds unsightly. Its biggest benefit is
psychological. It is used to minimize age-related features in baby boomers such
as wrinkles and sagging skin. “A big part of self-esteem is feeling that you
look good. We can cure an insecurity in 30 minutes that a psychiatrist can’t
cure in 30 years,” H. George Brennen, M.D., Plastic and Reconstructive
Surgery, states in the magazine article from Young and Modern. Many people want
to get cosmetic surgery because they feel that they don’t look good. “A
certain level of attractiveness can open doors. It can make a difference in a
teen’s social life and later on, in a career,” (Bloch 60). It can help you
to look better and pursue a career in modeling or a field related to looks.
Shouldn’t people accept themselves for who they are? As Andrea Cooper states
in the article “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Make Me the Prettiest of Them
All”, “All the cosmetic surgery in the world won’t help if you don’t
feel good on the inside.” It won’t change you if you already don’t feel
good about yourself. You will just make it worse by trying to change yourself so
you’ll feel more attractive. People age. Especially today when they are active
and in the work force. They feel good on the inside, but when they look at their
image, they look at a face or body that they dislike. “I don’t see a problem
at all with matching what you see with how you feel,” (Davis 77). If you were
hoping cosmetic surgery would add excitement and spice to your life, or rekindle
an old flame, you might be disappointed. It will only change physical aspects.
Your mental aspects may still be disappointing. You’re still yourself, you are
just learning to cope better with your body now that you like it. You can learn
to be more confident and self-assured. “During the periods in between the
wars, Americans participated in a new, visual culture, where appearance seemed
to rank even higher in importance. The postwar era also saw an increase in
surgery to minimize or eradicate physical signs of race or ethnicity,”
(Shepard 2006). Americans began to see people of different origins, and they
liked their look better. Other people didn’t like their appearances an example
being blacks. Whites thought they were better than blacks and used them as
slaves just because of their skin color. Things like that make you want to
change your looks so that other people wouldn’t make fun of you or ridicule
you about your looks. Research shows that today looks play a major role in our
society. Women and men look at magazines and see the pictures of the skinny
models. Then they think that they’re ugly and fat because they might not be
that skinny or have those perfectly proportioned face. Remember the saying
it’s what’s on the inside that counts. You should go by that because the
pictures of the people you think are “perfect” probably have many more
problems than you. Live to like yourself and don’t go by what others think of
you. Some types of cosmetic surgery are rhinoplasty, the reduction of a nose,
otoplasty, to correct protruding ears, blepharoplasty, which is to remove
drooping skin around eyes, and rhytidectomy, face-lift. People tend to want
blepharoplasty as they get older. It has many complications that could arouse
including bleeding, swelling, delayed wound healing, infection, drooping of
upper or lower lid, asymmetry, double vision, and dry eye syndrome. During
recovery, the first 24- 48 hours you have substantial swelling and blurry
vision. The stitches aren’t removed until four to five days later. Breast
enlargements are a common sought surgery. Women want bigger breasts so that men
will like them better or just to look bigger. Complications that could occur are
delaying wound with diabetes, history of radiation, autoimmune disease, smokers,
capsular contracture, bleeding, infiction, and irregularity of skin. After
having surgery there is swelling, and there may be some asymmetry. The first
week you can’t lift anything or exercise. The outer shell of the silicon is
filled with saline. If the saline get a hole, the leak can result in a flat
implant and necessitating surgical replacement. “Risk of serious complications
for most cosmetic procedures is as high as 2%, with some procedures being more
problematic,” (Podolsky 74). Listen to all of these complications that could
occur and recovery methods. Are you willing to go through this? What if this
happens to you while you are getting surgery? Are you willing to risk your
perfectly normal body for one that could be even worse after surgery? Think
about all of these. This was only two of the types of surgery. Think about how
long it would be to list the rest of them. When you go in to talk to the doctor
about your surgery, they will most likely either take a picture or they have a
computer-imaging machine to show you what the change will look like. For a
picture, if only the lighting, angle, and film are changed, you can look like a
totally different person with great results when no surgery has been done. In
the computer imaging, it’s technically impossible for your surgeon to
replicate those results. You will go into surgery thinking you know what
you’ll look like when you’re done, but when you get done, you will look
totally different. Sometimes people are going through life changes and they
think that it will solve their problem, so they go ahead with it. In the end,
people are more depressed after the surgery because they don’t like the way
they look. Doctors should advise patients to look at the whole picture and
suggest procedures that are in keeping with your overall appearance. Today a
more natural appearance is popular. Liposuction has become the nations favorite
cosmetic procedure. It is not appropriate to get liposuction done for general
obesity. You have to have always consistently eaten well and worked out. You
have to try to rid yourself of the problem area first. If it doesn’t go away
after trying, then you might consider it. “Slick marketing campaigns make it
easy to think of cosmetic surgery as just another off-the-shelf consumer
product, its purchase about on par with buying a new computer system. But
surgery is surgery. There is pain. Recovery can be lengthy and uncomfortable.
Moreover, there can be complications of anesthesia, infection, bleeding, and
unfavorable scar,” says Ross Rudolph, head of plastic surgery at the Scripps
Clinic in La Jolla, California. Surgery isn’t guaranteed. What if you aren’t
satisfied? A lot of surgeons charge for a re-operation. They explain it as
cosmetic surgery not being a luxury. After surgery, if you’ve had an incision,
you’ll get a scar. Do you want a scar after you’ve tried to make yourself
look better? It might make you look worse. You won’t be able to exercise. You
will always have to wear sunblock on that part of the body you’ve had surgery.
You can’t expose your skin to hot, cold, or windy conditions. Pretty much,
you’ll have to stay inside when you want to go out and show off your surgery.
The commercial goal is to make you want the most extensive surgery at the
highest cost you can afford. Since insurance doesn’t cover it doctors can
charge whatever they like. Many doctors are doing cosmetic surgery with minimal
training. Urologists are doing hair transplants. Gene Barry, a gynecologist,
does more liposuctions the C-sections. They do it for that extra money since you
are paying for it out of your pocket. Do you want a doctor who has no training
doing surgery on you? It is scary to even think about that. The cost is anywhere
from $200 to $12,000 for one procedure. The cheapest being vein removal at $200
to $500, and the most expensive being a face-lift at $5,600 to $12,100.
“People having vanity procedures topped 1.6 million in the United States in
1994,” (Podolsky 72). If you have more than one thing done, then of course it
will cost more than that. Even after spending all that money to correct you
imperfection, most of the areas are likely to go back to the way they were after
a few years. You will grow back wrinkles. It’s a sign of aging. Only a few
procedures stay forever. A tummy tuck, for example, will stay forever, but the
fat will grow in around where you got surgery leaving a lumpy look. All surgery
is hazardous. The doctor should help you decide what not to have to minimize
your risk. Cosmetic surgery is all about fantasy and possibilities, not scars
and death. That’s what explains the growing population. “In the process,
something other than flesh is being altered,” (Siebert 20). Deaths are rare,
but no one knows how rare since risk data isn’t compiled into a central
clearinghouse. “US News asked Physician Insurers Association of America, which
has data on malpractice claims, to check its database of over 150,000 cases
involving cosmetic procedures. There were 2,600 claims from Jan. ‘85- Dec.
’95. Thirty of those cases involved deaths,” (Podolsky 74). That is a high
death rate. Do you want to be one of those statistics? This shows you that
cosmetic surgery is not only dangerous, but can also result in death. After
reading this, you should reconsider the thought about having cosmetic surgery.
It shows you just how high the risks are and that it is about fantasies. God
gave you the look you have and you should be satisfied with them. Remember that
it’s not what is on the outside, it’s what is on the inside that counts.

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