Obesity Surgery on the Rise: Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Getting More Popular for Teens & Adults
March 2007
by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen
Suite 101
Between 2000-2003, obesity surgery tripled. At this rate there will be more than 1,000 obesity surgeries performed on children and teens every year. Obesity surgery is exploding!
The number of children undergoing obesity surgery in the US has tripled in recent years. Cosmetic plastic surgery and obesity surgery may be less risky in teens than adults, according to recent research.
Children heal faster from obesity surgery?
One study found that children and teens are hospitalized for shorter periods of time (than adults) after obesity surgeries, and they don't die as often as adults. In fact, not one child died during obesity surgery – as compared to 212 adult deaths from obesity surgeries in the hospital.
However, a different study found that teens do suffer from complications during obesity surgery. This study, conducted by Dr. Randall Burd of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, suggests that the risks outweigh the benefits of plastic surgery or obesity surgery for children.
Other types of plastic surgery
According to Bliss magazine, 40% of teens consider cosmetic plastic surgery. How many consider obesity surgery was not indicated. Only 8% are happy with their bodies as they are; 25% say they have an eating disorder. Girls are unhappy with their weight and appearance – and seem to be getting unhappier every year. The pressure to be perfect increases all the time, which contributes to the rising rate of obesity surgery.
This pressure to be perfect comes from the media: movies, magazine models, tv shows, pop singers – any image of perfection and unspeakable beauty can cause women to compare themselves and come up lacking. This also contributes to both obesity surgery and plastic surgery.
Complications from plastic surgery
A New York teen died the night after she underwent a nose job. She wanted the rhinoplasty to smooth out her crooked and bumpy nose, remnants of a car accident about a year before the surgery. A lawsuit is pending against the Park Avenue plastic surgeon.
Deaths are not a common side effect of plastic surgery, but most people don't realize what is involved in even the smallest operation. Thus, plastic surgeons (the "good" ones, anyway) spend a great deal of time counseling their patients and ensuring that they're having surgery for the right reasons.
Obesity surgery or accepting yourself for who you are
Remember Popeye's unfailing acceptance of himself? "I yam what I yam." (Although even he used alternative methods of pumping himself up. Spinach!). Being proud of your individuality and appearance seems less and less popular all the time -- and obesity surgery is more popular! We want to be accepted, and it seems that acceptance comes only to those who are perfectly beautiful, thin, and confident. |
