PLASTIC SURGERY: a way to become beautiful or someone’s unhealthy idea? With passing time, the urge to become beautiful is increasing in everyone’s life. Is the requirement just in our heads or is it truly needed. Does everyone have a right to be beautiful and look more attractive? Most of us would say yes. Everyone wants to be good-looking and pretty. Nowadays looks and appearances seem to be the basic requirement in every person and hold much more importance compared to a person’s abilities and inner self. This instinct is present in human beings since the start of the world.
Allah the Almighty has created this universe and has described it a beautiful creation. Amongst all, He proclaims that human being has been created as the best of its creations. The proportioning of different body parts in a human body is in its ultimate shape and it therefore cannot be improved further. One wonders as to how many samples have Allah made in his factory that no one matches other perfectly. However sometimes someone feels dissatisfied with the shape or proportioning of any of its revealing parts particularly nose and due to its natural instinct to look the most beautiful wants to improve it to the best possible shape.
What is Plastic surgery? It is the result of this instinct that compelled scientists and doctors to initiate work in this field and finally they devised various methods for this purpose, all collectively known as plastic surgery. Plastic surgery as what people think is a surgery that involves fake and artificial material injected to our body to improve or reconstruct a body part etc. But plastic surgery is basically defined as a type of surgery that both improves a person’s appearance as well as body functions. The word “Plastic” comes from a Greek word “plastikos” that means to be able to be moulded.
The question here is whether plastic surgery actually makes your life better or just acts as a placebo. Today more than 10 million people go through the processes of plastic surgery merely for cosmetic reasons. To what extent one should bear such heavy costs only for the sole purpose of looking beautiful? Considering the cost of such surgeries questions are raised whether the wealthy part of the world only deserves to be perfect and look beautiful? Doesn’t the poor part of the world have an equal right to make use of the facility to look better and beautiful? Is that fair? Certainly, no.
There are two types of plastic surgeries; the reconstructive surgery and the cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery is concerned with treating the injuries as well as defected marks or body parts. This type of surgery is used to treat the injuries caused by major accidents or deformities caused during birth or major operations. On the other hand cosmetic surgery is generally used for altering certain body parts merely due to ones dissatisfaction over their appearances. Thus cosmetic surgery is used to achieve perfection and satisfaction. This type of surgery is mostly and commonly used for liposuction, mammoplasty, rhinoplasty etc.
Cosmetic surgery, as everyone knows, is used by celebrities and members of showbiz. A layman will think that an actress did cosmetic surgery only to hide signs of aging or change the size of her breasts, stomach or shape of nose. Till recently plastic surgery especially cosmetic surgery was considered a luxury which only the rich, bold and celebrities could afford but with increasing influence of Hollywood and Bollywood industries on the people and the society about obsession of body image, the rate of conducting cosmetic surgery is getting higher and higher.
Now it is not uncommon to hear people generally women chatting excitedly how one of them got new breasts. The use of this surgery still involves lot of money and can be afforded by mostly the rich but it is not a luxury anymore since it is not only the celebrities that go through the process of cosmetic surgery but has become a general trend these days. According to The Review, Dawn “Mummy jobs’, in which cosmetic surgeons set out to erase all evidence of childbirth from a woman’s body, are already big business in the US. Now they are catching on elsewhere.
” Also it was quoted by a woman who said that such treatments are important since other wise woman get into the state of depression just because they do not like their body. (Groskop “WOMEN: Cosmetic surgery to erase evidence of childbirth”) it is quite evident now that previously when such reasons had no impact on someone’s life now leads to medical operations due to discontentment. As read above, emotions and self consciousness are the main reasons behind cosmetic surgery. Everyone is very self conscious about their appearances and always wants to change two to three things in their body if they could.
Teens, especially, are really concerned about the way they look and gets sensitive and depressed if things not go the way they want. Being so self critical about yourself does not mean that you should rush to a surgeon and get a nose job or liposuction. Shouldn’t you try going to a gym or try wearing makeup. Cosmetic surgery is also the result of Body dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). This disorder means that a person is always occupied by a defect in his appearance which is mostly non-existent. BDD is considered a branch of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Sometimes plastic surgery makes them satisfied but many still are not contended and thus the symptoms for BDD continue. Let us take the example of Michael Jackson, the celebrity who went through more than 20 plastic surgeries. All his fans saw the odd dramatic changes in the person during all those years from 1977 to 2006, the year he died. According to an article on awfulplasticsurgery. com Michael Jackson first had a rhinoplasty, then the thinning of lips. After that his skin lightened and the shape of his chin changed.
All this time his nose kept on changing and finally a cartilage from his ear had to be used to reconstruct the shape of his nose. It clearly shows that poor Jackson was suffering from body dysmorphic disorder and with time it was growing worse as he became a drug addict as well. (Michael Jackson – the plastic surgery years) The surgical equipments and procedures used in plastic surgery also raise some questions. The general idea about plastic surgery, as mentioned at the beginning of the essay, is that plastic and fake materials are actually grafted into the human body resulting in a superficial and fake body.
More than 50% of Pakistani population is not literate enough to understand all the procedures of a surgery and thus become victims of the bandwagon effect and become suspicious whether or not it is right to go through the surgery. On the other side, if we look in the light of science, the use of excessive rays and laser beams on the body is unhealthy especially when the requirement is optional. Cutting and stitching for no reasons can sometimes cause a person his/her life.
In addition to the above argument, there are many side effects and dangers related to plastic surgery. Sometimes the procedure just does not go right and the person ends up looking worse than he or she originally was. In addition to this, the surgical procedures and laser beams can cause serious harm to the body. Signs of such effects can be nausea, vomiting, chills and fever, blood clot, great amount of swelling at one side of the body, excessive pain and redness, shortness of breath, unusual chest pains and heartbeat, wound separation as well as bleeding.
(Kita, Bad plastic surgery: what to do if it happens to u) Such side effects at times can be a threat to one’s life and thus need immediate medical attention most of the time. According to board-certified Manhattan plastic surgeon, Matthew Schulman, MD, the first thing you should do if you think you’ve been a victim of bad plastic surgery is to call your surgeon and make an appointment to see him or her. Understand that even the best surgeons have complications. It is possible that what you’re seeing or experiencing is just a normal part of your healing process.
If it is something more serious, your surgeon may offer to do a corrective surgery at no charge to you. (qtd. Bad Plastic Surgery: What to Do if It Happens to You) The detractors of plastic surgery argue that one should be satisfied with the way he/she looks. It is the way you have been made. We should not spend extra money or cash on improving our body parts because that is the way God has made us. Changing our appearances will not make us better or a different person. We should do efforts and try to develop and improve our inner self, mind, abilities, skills and aptitude.
Also, looking at the broader view and in long term, the effects of plastic surgery do not remain forever. For example, if a woman gets face lifts just to remove her signs of aging, she might be successful for a couple of years, but ultimately the natural aging process will take place and silicon implants will have to be done again. This means another surgery will be needed. Does that seem practical? Doesn’t the whole pain the woman went through seems useless? The other side of the debate says that plastic surgery do have some promise and has led to great success and sensational achievements.
Many people, celebrities as well as the mango people have received great benefits from the procedures of this surgery. For example plastic surgery has given and increased self confidence in many young as well as adults especially the female part of the society. The majority poor female part of the Pakistani society goes through several tortures such as getting burned alive, being victims of acids dropped on their faces by their enemies and sometimes by their angry husbands or mothers in law.
Also the requirement of a pretty face for marriage is important in the Asian part of the world which creates many problems for the unfortunate ugly young girls mostly in villages etc. plastic surgery has given these women a second chance to live their lives with more confidence and self esteem. Some children have deformities in their body since birth such as cleft lips, deformed ears and many other skin defects. To such children, Plastic surgery is an extraordinary blessing.
Such children when treated with the help of plastic surgery are relieved of all the emotional tension and trauma caused by their appearances. Recently a campaign has been started by plastic surgeons that have started to treat poor patients for free. As mentioned on Health News, “NEW DELHI – A charity programme that brings women plastic surgeons from around the world to perform surgeries on economically backward women in developing countries, free of charge, would be held in India soon.
The programme, called Women for Women is an initiative of the International Confederation for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS). ” (IANS “Women plastic surgeons to treat poor for free”) Such actions and programs should be encouraged so that the real advantages reach to the well deserved. Plastic surgery, in my opinion, is truly a blessing in the field of science. Many advantages have been taken from this surgery and it is certainly a gift to many. But this does not mean that the tool to become better should be used by everyone just to achieve perfection and ultimate beauty.
Not only is this not right practically, but also a lot of risks and precautions are involved such as the quality of hospitals, surgeons and equipment. Sometimes a body can show unexpected reaction to the treatment merely due to allergies or harshness of the procedure. My advice to all you out there is to stay contented with the way you are. Try to make your life better by improving your mind and persona. Otherwise do you really want to lose your identity in your chase to good looks?