Plastic Surgery

Since the beginning of existence it has seemed that the outer appearance of a person is more important than the inner. Society as well as the media has played a key role in distributing this thought through the minds of all ages. Every year there is a new trend that you need to follow to "fit in", that's the preconceived notion anyway. But how much is too much? How far should someone go to "fit in"? Plastic surgery has been around for quite a bit of time but has within the last decade or so reached a peak in interest due to the desire of all to be flawless.

According to the website "A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon" plastic surgery began more than 4,000 years ago and in 800 BC India adopted many forms of reconstructive surgery. As most progress in medicine normally takes a long time it also took plastic surgery a long time to make any advancement. The "American Society of Plastic Surgeons" described the movement as "glacially". The first noted performance of plastic surgery was documented in 1827. The operation was a cleft palate. Dr. John Peter Mettauer was the surgeon whom preformed this surgery, and he used instruments that he designed himself. Dr. Meattauer has been called "a genius of his time", by the government website PubMed. Dr. Mettauer lived from 1787 to 1875 and left behind a legacy that would empower other surgeons to further medicine and bring plastic surgery to the worldwide acclaim that it has reached today.

It's important to learn the history about a topic so that is what's briefly mentioned above. Now we move on to the good stuff. Let's start off with types of plastic surgery. In today's world it is possible to fix just about any part of your body that you deem not perfect. I am sure that just about everyone feels that the most common procedure regarding plastic surgery is breast implants, however a 2005 statistical fact sheet reveals something different. According to this fact sheet posted by the "American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery" the number one procedure in 2005 was lipoplasty, which without doctor jargon is more commonly known as liposuction. Coming in second through fifth was breast augmentation (implants), blepharoplasty (cosmetic eyelid surgery), rhinoplasty (nose job), and adominoplasty (tummy tuck). I must admit myself that I was a bit shocked to find in third place cosmetic eye surgery but that is the perfect example of how detailed some people are to what they feel is perfection. All of the procedures listed above are surgical. However, there are some other procedures that some opt for that are not surgical. These include but are not limited to botox, laser hair removal, microdermabrasion, and chemical peels.

An important question that I feel needs to be addressed is how bearable is the pain and what risks are associated with the procedures? The "American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery" lists thing's to take into "consideration" when having breast augmentation as complications with anesthesia (typical with any surgical procedure), change in nipple size as well as breast size, and possible an eruption of the implant which is not harmful to you body. That seems a bit scary to me, however not as bad as I expected. Nose reshaping surgery "considerations were listed as complications with anesthesia, swelling, bruising around the eyes and checks, possibility of other surgery's and less exposure to the sunlight. Though these seem like valid "consideration" I feel that they are brief and minor descriptions of complications.

As a child I fractured my nose. My friend had spent the night over my house and the next day we were in my bathroom getting ready to go to the store with my mom. We were standing very close to each other as were doing our hair, when suddenly the beret that my friend, Briana, was tying her pony tail into snapped. When it snapped and broke it right elbow jerked directly into my face, straight into my nose. I began to cry hysterically. I was in so much pain and although it was not bleeding it hurt very badly. For the next few days I began to notice that my nose remained very red and very swallow. I have had a bump on my nose ever since then. When I was in tenth grade almost sixteen I had been nagging my parents for years to allow me to get surgery, and finally my mother began to give in. We made an appointment with a doctor, after school one day. After examining my nose with some rather uncomfortable tools, the doctor noted that I had what is known as a deviated septum. My way of explaining that to people is that the wall that separates the two nostrils is slanted in on one side more than the other and therefore causes a difficulty with breathing.

I informed the doctor of my unhappiness with the bump on my nose as well and he told me that our insurance would cover the anesthesia for the deviated septum procedure and while I was under he could fix the bump therefore we would only have to pay for the procedure rather than having to go under again. My mother said we would take it into consideration. A few months later we decided to move out of New York and I never did have the procedure. I feel that one day I may