Here’s a disturbing trend: Between 1996 and 2010 the number of teenagers aged 13-19 having elective cosmetic surgery has increased by 548% – from around 14,000 procedures to 76,841 last year, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The vast majority of these surgeries are rhinoplasty, followed by octoplasty (ear-pinning, typically), breast augmentation, asymmetry correction and reduction, and liposuction.

Why would so many kids go under the knife?

Almost without exception, the surgeries are performed in response to teasing, bullying and low self-esteem. The ASPS says that teens “tend to have plastic surgery to fit in with peers, to look similar,” by “improv[ing] physical characteristics they feel are awkward or flawed, that if left uncorrected, may affect them well into adulthood.” Thirteen-year-old Nicolette Taylor (shown above) had a nose job after kids at school teased her; the “Hey, big nose,” comments followed her to Facebook before her parents stepped in and opted to have Nicolette’s nose reconstructed. She’s not alone, either — ABC reports that at least 90,000 such surgeries were performed last year “to avoid being bullied.”

Of course, a teenager can’t just walk into a doctor’s office and request a consult. Richard D’Amico, president of the ASPS, speaking with U.S. News and World Report, says that for anyone under age 18, a parent or guardian must be present and the prospective patient must have the maturity to understand the procedure, be able to express that “the desire for surgery does not reflect what a parent, friend, or boyfriend desires” and have realistic expectations. Even so, it becomes obvious when looking at the numbers that often surgery is a knee-jerk response to what most adults would consider the norms of teenage interaction. And it seems to skip over that “it builds character” thing that previous generations admired so strongly before plastic surgery was so widespread and available. Succinctly, Sheri Reed of The Stir asks, “[Plastic surgery], in no way, attempts to deal with the emotional matters behind a bully’s behavior, nor does it teach the teen who hates herself the important life lesson of resilience.”

How do parents justify plastic surgery for their children?

There are no laws governing the minimum age for cosmetic procedures. Standard policy requires that a patient reaches a point of growth maturity beforehand, which is determined by monitoring changes in shoe size or height. There are two types of procedures: corrective and cosmetic. In the first camp, you have surgeries to repair deviated septa, cleft palates, under- and over-bites and any malformation or physical impairment that affects the quality of life.

One teenager in the news recently will be having a series of procedures to correct her severe underbite; while kids do tease her about her protruding jaw, Samantha Weichhan’s orthodontists Drs. Jerry Blum and Margo Brilliant argue that the process is not cosmetic. “It’s kind of like if you have somebody that one leg is 4 inches shorter than the other leg, and they say to straighten it out is an aesthetic thing. No, it’s not an aesthetic thing. Yeah, you will look  better if you’re standing straight on both legs, but point is, it’s a functional problem.”

But those aren’t the worrying procedures. In Nicolette Taylor’s case, whose nose operates just fine, getting cosmetic surgery to change the way she looks in response to some posts on a Facebook wall (which, incidentally, are not supposed to be opened by 13-year-olds according to Facebook’s Terms of Service), the reasoning becomes a little hazier. Rob Taylor, Nicolette’s father, explains it this way to ABC: “You send them to a good school. You’d buy them shoes. You’d get them braces, which we did. It’s that kind of thing.” The parents of Kaitlyn Clemmons, who gave their 18-year-old daughter breast augmentation surgery as a Christmas gift, see the pain of the procedure as something akin to the pain after a trip to the gym. “Everything comes with a price,” her stepfather says. Tracy Carp, who had breast augmentation at 17 with her parents’ consent and recently underwent a second procedure to reshape a “slight bump” on her nose, says that “a little bit of cosmetic work” has helped his daughter “feel much better about herself . . . and healthier.”

What price hotness?

A new nose or sleeker profile aren’t free, even if the surgery is performed pro bono or paid for by insurance. The ASPS urges teenagers and their parents to remember that “plastic surgery is real surgery, with great benefits, but also carries some risks.” In 2008, Pennsylvania courts awarded $20 million to a family of an 18-year-old girl who died from what was “likely a pulmonary embolism after liposuction.” The same year, 18-year-old Stephanie Kuleba of Florida died of malignant hyperthermia, a rare reaction to anesthesia, after undergoing cosmetic breast surgery. “This is something that can happen in any surgery, on any part of the body, in any setting,” D’Amico said.

Other risks? MRSA infection, a deadly strain of staph, which killed more US patients in 2008 than AIDS. Unskilled or shady surgeons, like the man who gave Priscilla Presley injections of “industrial, low-grade silicone” after convincing her that it was a miracle fix for wrinkles. And then there are always the kids who will tease you for having a nose job or breast implants.

Given all the factors that accompany an elective procedure, would you consent to or support plastic surgery for your own kids if they were being teased about their physical appearance?

Sources:

• 13-Year-Old Long Island Girl Gets Plastic Surgery To Avoid Being Teased
• Dr. Niccole Shares His Views on Teen Plastic Surgery
• Florida Teen: Jaw Surgery ‘Will Change My Life’
• Plastic Surgery For Teenagers Briefing Paper
• Teens Getting Plastic Surgery: Be Cautious
• Teen Plastic Surgery: How young is too young to get nipped and tucked? (Video)
• Girl’s Death Spotlights Plastic Surgery among Teens

Botox for wrinkles, tummy tucks, nose jobs, braces, and eyelid lifts, which are common for breeds like the bloodhound and bulldog. There are also implants such as “Neuticles” — bean-shaped silicone implants to replace the testicles of neutered dogs. They have little to no health benefit for the dog, and vets aren’t too keen on the procedure. Still, more than 425,000 pets around the world now sport such implants.

Proponents of the cosmetic pet surgeries say they allow pets to lead  ”healthier and more active lives.” Personally, I find the trend as cruel as suggesting your kid get a tummy tuck, but you can decide for yourself. There’s more from The Week: Link

See the difference in the before and after photos above? That’s 12-year-old Lee Min Kyong after plastic surgery of her eyelids to make her look more "western."

Scoff all you will, but plastic surgery to make Asians look more western is big business in Asia, and growing rapidly:

The definition of pretty, explains their plastic surgeon, is not the standard Asian face, but closer to a Caucasian face. Dr Kim Byung-gun is the head of Seoul, South Korea’s biggest plastic surgery clinic, BK DongYang. The clinic is a dozen stories tall, with all of its operating rooms full on the day of Min kyong’s surgery.

Dr Kim says his clinic, one of the most successful in a city dubbed the "plastic surgery capital of Asia," performs 100 surgeries a day, ranging from eyelid surgery to nose reshaping to facial contouring.

"They always tell me they don’t like their faces," says Dr Kim, explaining what his patients request prior to surgery. "They want to have some westernized, nice faces. They want to have big eyes like westernized people, high profile, nicer noses.
"The Chinese and Korean patients tell me that they want to have faces like Americans. The idea of beauty is more westernized recently. That means the Asian people want to have a little less Asian, more westernized appearance. They don’t like big cheekbones or small eyes. They want to have big, bright eyes with slender, nice facial bones."

Link

Would you like to have pointed ears like a Vulcan or an elf? There are doctors and body modification artists who will do it for you. Doctors warn that it’s essentially permanent, so be sure of your decision before going under the knife. There’s a video at the link from ABC’s morning show, which is labeled “Spock Ears for Kids”, though they’re no indication that children are getting the procedure.

Link via io9 | Image: ABC News | Previously: Pointy Ears

The tome, which is written in Latin, is illustrated with diagrams, including the rhinoplasty, in which the patient’s nose was attached to a flap of skin from his upper arm.

In one plate, the patient is seen in bed with his forearm attached to his head and a flap of skin from his bicep region stuck onto his nose.

The book tells how he stayed like that for about three weeks until the skin from his arm had attached itself properly.

After a further two weeks the flap of skin was shaped so it resembled a nose and the process was complete.

After Tagliacozzi’s death, the procedures were forgotten in Europe, probably because of the disapproval of religious authorities. A rare copy of the book was recently sold for £11,000 -to a plastic surgeon. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Here in LA, a skeletonized Oscar-esque statue suddenly appeared atop Runyon Canyon days before the awards show last week. For those who don’t know it, Runyon Canyon is a park in Hollywood that’s very popular with joggers, hikers and dog lovers (dogs can go unleashed and run up the canyon trails).

No one knows who sculpted the giant Oscar, but clearly there’s a message behind it. Has plastic surgery taken over Hollywood? The world? Is there anything wrong with plastic surgery? (via Los Anjealous.)

Some actors appear to be underplaying their characters, consciously making them cool, without affect. If you can’t move your face, why not create an undemonstrative character? Others have taken the opposite approach: On two cable dramas starring actresses of a certain age, the heroines are brassy and expansive, with a tendency to shout and act out, yet somehow their placid foreheads are never called into play. Usually, when a person reenacts a stabbing or smashes a car with a baseball bat, some part of the face is going to crease or bunch up. Not so with these women. As though to compensate for their facial inertia, both perform with stagy vigor, attempting broad looks of surprise or disappointment, gesticulating and bellowing. If you can’t frown with your mouth, they seem intent on proving, you can try to frown with your voice.

The bright side is that public opinion may eventually turn to a preference for naturally aged thespians. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Hannah Whitaker)

Amy Husser of The Vancouver Sun tells us the new medical procedure that will help you lose weight by making it painful to eat:

The medical procedure involves stitching a small piece of polyethylene mesh onto a patient’s tongue, making it painful to ingest solid foods and forcing a low-calorie, liquid diet.

"The patch is a pattern interrupt," said Dr. Nikolas Chugay, the California-based plastic surgeon who developed the concept. "It is uncomfortable to eat solid foods, so people will all of a sudden remember, I am only to eat liquids."

Since last September, Chugay says 35 people have opted for the surgery, resulting in an average weight loss of 20 pounds (over the one-month period the postage-stamp-sized piece of fabric stays stitched on).

"These are people who have been through . . . every conceivable diet; they’ve tried everything and for some reason they just cannot stop eating," he said …

Links | Dr. Chugay’s website

Conceived by South African plastic surgeons and currently being performed in Europe, the Internal Bra System is a breast-lift operation that places a mesh-like material inside the breast to support the new shape.

The cone-shaped material, named Breform, is similar to what is used in hernia operations. It’s meant to take the strain off the skin, which after a traditional breast lift can begin to stretch and sag in three years, according to The Daily Mail.

“Breform is like a bra cup without the straps,” plastic surgeon Dalvi Humzah told The Daily Mail. “Over time, the mesh gets incorporated into the breast as the body produces a fibrous tissue that holds the structure in place – like a permanent bra under the skin.”

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: Breform

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin’s fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.

Lin reportedly paid around $15,000 for the surgery in China. Link -via Boing Boing

(image credit: Flicker user chadmiller)

Billboard advertisements.  Holding signs on busy street.  Making online videos.  These are just some of the unconventional methods used by job seekers in these trying economic times.

Now, add cosmetic surgery to the list.  Job seekers are now turning to plastic surgery in order to turn back the clock and appear more youthful and ‘fresh’ for job interviews. 

Mr Grabow’s surgeon, Payman Simoni, performs what he calls a “wide awake facelift” using only local anaesthesia, which he says slashes the recovery time as well as the cost of the procedure, making it popular among job seekers.

“Before the economy turned down, people would come in because they wanted to have more fun and enjoyment out of life,” Dr Simoni said.

“But now plastic surgery has become a necessity for some. People cannot only rely on their skills in this market. They want to look refreshed and youthful so they can compete for jobs,” he said.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

“i don’t want kids no, the risk is too high for me to have them be born with the same condition. . . . i wouldn’t want them having to experience what i did, and i cannot work, no one will hire me so i gave up on that, and i don’t plan on ever getting married, i don’t believe in it.”

Of course she claimed she didn’t care. “Not all dreams come true,” she wrote once, sounding more resigned than bitter.

In time I interpreted her rationalizations as a measure of how vulnerable she was to the truth: that she would never be married, never gaze upon her own child or be anything less than dependent on others for her livelihood, and all because of her face. I wondered if someday she would prove me wrong.

Link to part one. Link to part two. Link to photos. -via Digg

Here’s a progression of her look, by the way.

Link via Awful Plastic Surgery

Whatever happened to appreciating the search for alternate fuel sources?

Link Via Consumerist, Photo by dotbenjamin [Flickr]