Should I Have Cosmetic Surgery?

Having cosmetic surgery can benefit your life in many ways. It can make you feel more confident with yourself, improve your self esteem and improve your interactions with others. Some even find that cosmetic surgery helps to give them a boost in their career.

However, cosmetic surgery is not without its risks. There are many complications that can occur with surgery, and you may not always be happy with the results.

So regardless of whether you are seeking rhinoplasty, a face lift, a breast lift, breast reduction or even just liposuction, you need to be sure that having cosmetic surgery is the right option for you before you go ahead and book a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon.

To help you make up your mind about whether or not you should have cosmetic surgery, have a look at the following questions in this article and use them to help you determine if you should have surgery and your motivations for having it.

Even if you are fairly certain that you want to have plastic surgery, these questions will still help you when you visit your cosmetic surgeon.

Most good surgeons will question you on your motivations for wanting to have surgery in order to determine whether or not your reasons are justifiably based on your physical appearance or are in fact psychological in nature.

If your motivation for wanting cosmetic surgery is judged to be psychological in nature, that surgeon will most probably refuse to operate on you because you are unlikely to get the type of results you hope changing your appearance will bring to your life.

The surgeon may also conditionally accept you for surgery, providing you go to a psychologist or psychiatrist first and get a referral from them saying that they approve of your surgery.

So as you can see, thinking about why you want to have cosmetic surgery is actually a very important preparatory step that you should take before you book a consultation with a plastic surgeon as it could ultimately determine whether or not you are able to have cosmetic surgery.

Let’s now have a look at some of the things you should be thinking about.

What Do You Hope To Change Through Cosmetic Surgery?

Everyone has a part of their body that they do not like. Perhaps your nose is too big or your breasts are too small? This is perfectly natural, as we all have something about ourselves that we feel could be altered or enhanced in some way.

It is very important that you think carefully about exactly what you don’t like about your body and how you hope to change it because this is one of the first questions that a cosmetic surgeon is going to ask you.

For example, suppose you feel as though your breasts are too small and you go to your surgeon and ask him to make them bigger for you. This would be a very general request, and it would not be very helpful to the surgeon in terms of trying to determine exactly how you would like your new breasts to be.

A far better approach, would be to tell your surgeon what size breasts you would like, or at least provide a size range.

It would also be helpful if you had some basic knowledge of the types of procedures that are available for breast augmentation surgery such as where incisions are made on the breast, incisions that can be made in other parts of the body such as the belly button or armpits and the type of breast implant used.

You don’t have to go into a consultation with a lot of medical knowledge, but it will greatly help your surgeon if you have a clear idea of what you would like done and how you would like it done.

Most of this information you can gather quite easily on the Internet, or by visiting the cosmetic surgery section in this website where you will find a whole host of free information on all the major types of surgical and non surgical cosmetic procedures.

You can visit the cosmetic surgery section here.

Remember, helping your surgeon to get as accurate as possible an idea of what you would like from your surgery will be beneficial to both of you.

For the surgeon, it will enable them to know exactly what type of end result you are looking for which then greatly increases the chance of you getting that result and being happy with it.

How Strongly Do You Want To Have Plastic Surgery?

Another important question to ask yourself is how much do you want to have cosmetic surgery?

Some people want plastic surgery very badly, because they feel that their life is suffering as a result of the way that they look.

For example, they may feel self conscious around other people which makes them act shy and withdrawn or they may feel uncomfortable getting intimate with another person.

If you feel that your life is being adversely affected by the way you look, cosmetic surgery has the potential to make dramatic changes to your life.

Be careful however, if you are desperate to have plastic surgery you may rush into having it. This can cause you to end up having surgery with a bad cosmetic surgeon and getting bad results.

If you aren’t that bothered about having cosmetic surgery immediately, perhaps you are still unsure as to whether or not you actually do want to have surgery?

In that case it is usually a good idea to wait awhile, and if you still want to have cosmetic surgery in a few months time or in a year, then you can always go ahead and book a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon.

In fact, this is actually a very good approach to take regardless of how strongly you feel that you want to change your appearance.

If you take the time to carefully think about the procedure you want to have done, you are also likely to spend the time educating yourself about it, learning about the possible risks involved, finding yourself the best surgeon and learning about any other alternatives that may exist to surgery.

So the more time you spend planning and researching your procedure, the better a result you are likely to get should you decide to go ahead and have cosmetic surgery.

Why Do You Want To Have Cosmetic Surgery?

If you feel that you have a deformity, or a part of your body is making you feel self conscious, then cosmetic surgery may be just what you need to take your life in a new direction.

However, be sure that what you think is a deformity, or abnormality, is in fact so. Often people think that they look worse than they actually do, and this usually stems from their childhood. For example, being teased about a body part by other children when you were younger.

In such cases, these problems are often psychological in nature rather than physical. A good cosmetic surgeon will refuse to operate on such patients.

It is also important that you don’t view plastic surgery as something that will make you look perfect, like the models or actors you see in magazines and movies.

The media places great emphasis on beauty, and this can cause people to feel inadequate with the way they look which then motivates them to seek cosmetic surgery so that they can change their appearance.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with improving the way you look, cosmetic surgery produces different results for everyone and what may look good on one person doesn’t necessarily look good on another.

For example, cosmetic surgeons often tell of how patients come to them and ask for a nose or bust like they have seen on an actor or model. But the same nose or bust does not fit that person’s body and would look on on them.

If you are using plastic surgery to look like someone else, you will never be truly happy with your appearance because it is impossible to look exactly like another person no matter how much surgery you have.

People who don’t believe this often undergo many surgical procedures and end up looking far worse than they did before they had any surgery.

What is actually happening when you try to change your appearance to look like someone else is self rejection. Essentially, you are saying that you do not like who you are and that you want to become someone else.

A self rejecting person, a person who cannot accept themselves for who they are, will never be truly happy in life no matter how much surgery they have done on themselves.

So take the time to really think about why you want to have cosmetic surgery, and what changes it would make to your life before you commit to changing the way you look.

Also, be absolutely sure that you want to have cosmetic surgery because you want to have it done and not because someone else wants you to.

Changing your appearance solely to please another person is a very dangerous road to go down because you will have to live with the results of any surgery you undergo for the rest of your life.

Is Plastic Surgery Your Only Option?

Cosmetic surgery is often viewed as a quick fix, as an easy way to change the way you look without much effort.

However, many people overlook the downsides to plastic surgery. For example, around 20% of people who have cosmetic surgery are not completely happy with their results. And once they change one part of their body, they begin to find flaws in other parts of their body and want to change those too.

So cosmetic surgery can be a slippery slope, as once you have had one procedure done, chances are you will have another at some stage in your life.

For this reason, it is important that you explore what other options are available to you. Is cosmetic surgery the only thing that you can do to change the way you look? Or are there alternatives available to you?

To help you better determine alternative options, go to as many different cosmetic surgeons as you can, at least 3-5, as they will all give you differing advice on your unique situation.

Of course, for some procedures, like rhinoplasty or breast augmentation surgery, having cosmetic surgery may be your only option if you want to change your appearance.

However, for other procedures, such as a facelift, you might be surprised to learn that you may be able to achieve the results you were looking for with a far less costly and less invasive procedure.

Many women for example, tend to think that a face lift is their best or only option for getting rid of wrinkles on their face. However, the truth is that facelifts are actually a very poor form of treatment for wrinkles, and is something which is more suited for dealing with sagging skin.

Wrinkles on the face can be much more effectively dealt with using non surgical treatments such as Botox, microdermabrasion, dermal fillers and laser skin resurfacing.

Again, this is why it is important to educate yourself as much as possible about any cosmetic procedure that you wish to undergo, and by taking the time to do some research first and not rushing into surgery, you will vastly increase your chance of getting an excellent end result.

Will Your Family/Friends Accept It?

Parents naturally worry about their children, and if their child is undergoing surgery they are understandably going to be worried about it.

You may find that your family does not agree with you having surgery, and may actively oppose it. Can you deal with going against your family’s wishes?

In the majority of cases this should not be too much of an issue, as if you are thinking of having plastic surgery, then you are old enough to make your own decisions. Where this may become a problem however, is if you come from a very strict or religious background.

Ultimately, whether or not you choose to have plastic surgery is your decision. So if you want to have it done, then you should not let what other people think stop you.

However, just remember that any changes you make to your physical appearance your friends and family will react to it in some way or another.

Hopefully, these reactions will be positive, but you must be prepared just in case they are not and then be mentally strong enough to deal with any criticisms or objections other people have.

What Will You Do Immediately After Your Procedure?

Having plastic surgery is only the first part of the equation, you also have to think about where you are going to recover.

Depending on what type of procedure you have done, you will need to spend a few days, weeks or even months recovering.

The first few days are likely to be spent inside a hospital facility, or the place you had your surgery, if you underwent a major surgical procedure such as abdominoplasty.

For most other procedures though, you can expect to be discharged soon after your surgery has been completed.

This means that you will spend the majority of your time recovering at home, and most people will also require some form of assistance from a friend or family member as they may not be able to do very much for themselves for the next few days.

If you want to keep your surgery a secret then this can be difficult to do if you need to ask someone to help you during your recovery period.

So if secrecy is very important to you, you might then consider having plastic surgery done abroad as you will be able to tell people that you are going away on holiday for awhile to avoid suspicion.

Can You Afford Plastic Surgery?

This is perhaps the most common question people think about when considering whether or not to have cosmetic surgery.

Having plastic surgery can be expensive, so unless you have a well paid job, you will need to spend some time saving up for it.

Be careful however not to just go with a certain cosmetic surgeon because they are cheap. When it comes to plastic surgery you really get what you pay for, so it is definitely worth waiting awhile until you find the right cosmetic surgeon for you and at the right price.

Do not make the mistake of rushing into surgery, as many people who do so find that they are unhappy with their results and so want to have a revision surgery to correct the first.

Doing so ends up costing them much more than had they waited for a better and more expensive surgeon.

Finally, be very careful about taking out loans for plastic surgery. Although loans can be a very easy and quick way to pay for plastic surgery, they will also put you very quickly and easily into debt.

If you are dealing with a large debt because you needed to pay for an expensive surgery, then the mounting interest on that debt could make it very difficult to repay and consequently put you into a very difficult financial situation.

So for this reason, it is usually better to wait until you have saved up money for surgery by yourself.

If you find that you still need to take out a loan for cosmetic surgery, then at least you will have some of your own money and so won’t have to take out so large of a loan.

Do You Have Time To Recover?

Just like you need a place to stay during your plastic surgery recovery period, you will also need to take some time off to recover.

For some procedures you may only need a few days, but for others you may require a few weeks or months. Can you afford to take the time off work to recover?

If you are living paycheck to paycheck, then the answer to this may be no. As if your income is suddenly cut off because you need to spend time recovering from your surgery, then you will not have any money to pay for food, bills and other financial commitments.

In such a case, be sure to plan ahead by saving up some money in advance that will see you through your recovery period.

Finally, you will also need to be able to take the time off work that is required for your recovery period. So if you know that you will be having cosmetic surgery in the near future, save up your holiday time and book it in advance to give you some time off work while you recover.

What Is Your Decision?

Cosmetic surgery can bring many benefits to your life, but it is not a cure all for your problems and it does come with certain risks.

As a general rule, if you feel that your life is being impeded by the way that you look then you may be a good candidate for plastic surgery.

Your next step will be to book a series of consultations with at least 3-5 cosmetic surgeons, so that they can give you their professional opinion on your unique situation.

If you still feel the need to have plastic surgery after your consultations and are aware and accepting of the risks involved, go ahead and book your surgery as it could end up being one of the best decisions you ever make for yourself.