Princess,
Thank you for your response. I confess that I do not watch TV very often and never saw any of the MTV programs about cosmetic surgery. I watched one "Extreme Makeover" program and that was enough for me. Until my participation in "Plastic Disasters", I had never seen anything on HBO.
However, I recall Discovery Channel broadcasting an entire weekend, 24 hrs. every day, of plastic surgery procedures. It was only on the last night of this TV surgery marathon that they showed a single "bad" outcome of a woman with a badly scarred face from laser resurfacing. They made a great point of the fact that this woman's procedure was done by an unqualified doctor. After all the programs aired, a disclosure appeared on the screen that the entire weekend's broadcasting was funded by the American Society of Plastic Surgery!
You may have noticed that all negative media regarding cosmetic surgery tends to emphasize that these mishaps are performed by UNQUALIFIED doctors. However, in my 8 years of communicating with hundreds of women who have been badly injured by cosmetic procedures, the vast majority were performed by board certified plastic surgeons; many of whom are considered "top docs".. the cream of the crop, so to speak... Some of these "renowned" surgeons are prolific contributors to medical journals in which they tout "new and improved" surgical techniques, etc., yet never reveal that they use patients as guinea pigs for these "new surgical innovations". They certainly do not provide the patient with this information. In cosmetic surgery, informed consent is a matter of symantics.
Years of researching the medical literature revealed many ugly and disturbing facts regarding the funding surgeons receive from some very unlikely sources. One that come to mind is an article in an aesthetic surgery journal about facelifts. At the end of the article, in very fine print, is the disclosure that this study was funded by the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation! I cannot help but wonder what contributors to this foundation would think if they knew their money was being used to fund studies on facelifting.
Cosmetic surgery is a cash business, entirely outside the realm of medical insurers, and thus below the radar of every other medical treatment. This money, and the people who end up with it in their pockets, wields power over the media and literally prevents the truth from reaching the public. Every botched procedure the media exposes cautions against having surgery by UNQUALIFIED doctors. This is just another back-handed way of promoting "board certified" surgeons, who are actually the biggest culprits.
All of the patients featured in "Plastic Disasters" were injured by board certified plastic surgeons.
Women need to rethink the reasons they risk their health, and perhaps their lives, for the sake of an external "improvement" they really do not
need. The single, most precious possession anyone has is GOOD HEALTH. The best way to keep that treasure is by avoiding needlessly jumping on an operating table when you do not have to do so to save your life.
Thanks for reading my rant
Losing Face