End illegal cosmetic surgeries

KL: Botched breast enlargement (June 20) Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 10:54:00

IT is regrettable to once again hear of a botched breast enhanchment procedure carried out on an unsuspecting lady from Pahang, who believed the surgery was being done by a qualified practitioner from overseas.

The job done was so bad, she now has to seek surgical aid from a genuinely qualified plastic surgeon, to help save her breasts.

She has even had to seek help from Datuk Michael Chong to obtain compensation for the pain and suffering she has had to endure.

It is time for the government to enact a law that will not only put a stop to unqualified surgeries, but also demacate provision of specialised services into professional categories.

This should clearly define what services are to be provided by barbers, hairdressers and beauty salons, trichologists and skin specialists, cosmetic or plastic surgery centres and fitness centres, to name a few.

Monitoring and enforcement should follow. Then perhaps, we will see an end to this current nonsense.

Lau Bing

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Men are seeking more cosmetic surgeries than ever

By Melanie Yates; Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- For his whole life, Yacov Wrocherinsky had problems with his teeth and gums. He decided to fix the trouble once and for all and then address the aesthetics, spending thousands on porcelain veneers.

"It was a great personal experience. Also as a business owner, it's important for the image you portray and the confidence you have," Wrocherinsky said.

There's the competitive edge and then there's also body image issues. Yacov's dentist, Marc Lowenberg, says men used to invest in smile makeovers only under orders from their wives. Now, the men themselves have an image in their mind and want the smile to match.

"They've studied other people's smiles, even movie stars. They will even make reference to someone like Matthew McConaughey, and say 'I don't want my smile as bold as his, but I like the way his smile looks.' That's a mentality that men did not use to have, but they definitely have it now. And the most amazing thing is that today, in 2011, I have as many male patients as female patients," Dr. Lowenberg said.

Dermatologists and plastic surgeons agree. More men, young and old, are "investing," spending thousands on treatments and rejuvenations

Michael Sean's doctor, cosmetic surgeon Dr. Misbah Khan, says many of her male clients don't want invasive treatments, but more minimal procedures.

"Their main concern is to look younger, but not any kind of a wow factor that it takes several years off their face," said Dr. Khan.

Whether motivated to smile like a movie star or look better for business, men, more than ever, will pay for a lift.

"I definitely feel that people who take pride in how they look...they get far," Michael Sean said.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of men who had cosmetic treatments rose to more than 1.1 million last year. In 2010, growth in certain procedures like face-lifts, liposuction and eyelid surgeries was much greater among men than women.

(Copyright c2011 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Health News ?

surgery, health news, jamie roth

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Cosmetic Surgeries Booming Again in U.S.

Published April 05, 2011

| The Wall Street Journal

More than 1.6 million Americans went under the knife for beauty in 2010, receiving breast implants, liposuction or facelifts, sending the rate of cosmetic surgeries up almost 9 percent from the prior year, according to a report released Monday.

Plastic surgeons say the increase generally tracks a reviving economy: A 2009 Cleveland Clinic study found a direct correlation between plastic surgery procedures and trends in the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexing.

"We've joked for years that we could create an economic indicator about how we're booked," said Felmont Eaves, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Americans spent $6.6 billion on cosmetic surgery in 2010, according to a survey of 938 plastic surgeons by the ASAPS, a Garden Grove, Calif., group of plastic surgeons specializing in cosmetic surgery.

The five most popular surgical procedures in 2010 were breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery, tummy tuck and breast reduction. All were up compared with 2009. Breast augmentation, the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure since 2008, has held fairly consistent during the recession, with the number of surgeries increasing 2 percent in 2010. Americans spent nearly $1.2 billion on breast augmentation in 2010, more than any other procedure.

This is in contrast to the number of liposuction surgeries, which has fallen 37 percent since 2007. While the survey doesn't explain why, Dr. Eaves said he's seen a similar decrease in liposuction in his practice and a slight increase in procedures such as thigh lifts and arm lifts that might produce a similar result.

Facelifts rebounded in 2010, increasing 35 percent from 2009. Facelift procedures decreased in 2008 and fell sharply in 2009. But in 2010, Americans spent $845 million on facelifts.

Facelifts are the second most expensive cosmetic procedure at $6,600 on average. (The most expensive procedure is a "lower body lift" at $7,904.)

Overall, there were 1.6 million elective plastic surgical procedures in 2010, down from the 2005 peak of more than 2.1 million, representing a modest recovery.

Women accounted for 91 percent of cosmetic surgeries in 2010 and make up the entirety of the 67 percent increase in surgical cosmetic procedures seen since 1997. In fact, slightly fewer men had surgical procedures in 2010 than in 1997.

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