Operation/Intervention of aesthetic surgery
Cosmetic Surgery - Plastic Surgery - Aesthetic Medicine - Reconstructive Surgery
Aesthetic surgery is a surgical discipline which has the power to
shape, repair or beautify the human body. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
offers temporary (facelifts, liposuction, wrinkle treatment by Botox®)
or definitive (breast surgery, nose surgery, sex change, etc.) body
modification
Aesthetic surgery has been a discipline since 1989 with specific
training leading to a qualification issued by the National Council of
the College of Physicians. This qualification is the result of specific
and precise education and training, sanctioned by examinations and
diplomas. Aesthetic surgery is officially included in the qualifications
for reconstructive plastic surgery. Plastic surgery has become:
plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.
The advertising of aesthetic surgery is developing so massively and
anarchically, that it is essential for the patient to be very attentive
to the qualifications of the plastic surgeon who will be treating
him/her.
The Act of March 4, 2002 was a key step in regulating the practice of
aesthetic surgery in the health system, strengthening the duties
falling to practitioners and regulating aesthetic surgery clinics. For
the purposes of ensuring informed consent, advertising is prohibited
and an estimate is required as is provision of the fullest information
possible on the surgical procedure(s) to be performed.
Unlike plastic and reconstructive surgery, in which the body is
repaired and rebuilt after illness or injury, aesthetic surgery as such
deals with patients who attend consultations with a view to modifying
healthy parties of their bodies.
These patients feel that some parts of their anatomy are very
unpleasant and have a need to modify their bodies for strictly personal
reasons. In this case, we must not neglect the part that social
pressure plays in this desire to change the body to appear more
consistent with the canons of beauty that appear in contemporary
society through the media, fashion and advertising . Aesthetic surgery
is the patient’s search to harmonise him/her with the image he/she
wants to show others.
Aesthetic surgery which not dictated by any medical justification is not covered by Social Security.
Dialogue between the surgeon qualified in aesthetic surgery and his
patient is fundamental to trying to identify the genuine will of the
patient, his/her deep desire to match the image of his/her body with
the one he/she feels deeply. Caution is always advised before any
transformative surgery is undertaken.
Key questions to ask include: Does the deformity exist? Does the
deformity affect patient's psychology or not? Is there a safe and
effective surgical method of correcting this deformity? After this
deformity is corrected, will the patient experience a psychological
benefit? The purpose of all these questions is to give the patient full
information so that he/she can think about strategy, risks and
outcomes that are proposed and then freely take the decision to undergo
surgery or refuse it.
The main surgical procedures are: surgery to the eyelids
(blepharoplasty), nose, ears, breasts, to excess localized fat, to the
abdomen and facelifts.
Aesthetic surgery, like all surgical procedures, entails risks and the
law requires the practitioner to inform the patient of all of them.
There are therapeutic risks along with anaesthetic risks, risk of
bleeding, infection risks, risk of scarring and risks associated with
various implants which are specific to each of them.
There are also risks related to the result, with the possibility that
the patient may be disappointed by that result (unsightly, visible, not
natural, etc.) The origin of a bad result is, in most cases, an
incorrect diagnosis, a strategic mistake, or a combination of both.
The final risk that exists in any surgery is directly related to the
patient's motivation and personality. This risk exists in cases where
the dialogue between surgeon and patient reveals an initial demand
which differs from the search for harmony or the repair of a visible
defect that is causing suffering. . This may be the case where the
request comes from an adolescent personality which is not fully formed
or where in children, who are asking for nothing, are taken to a
consultation by their parents. . It may also arise in other cases,
however, where the patient may consider he will achieve a change of life
by the mere intervention of aesthetic surgery.
The surgeon, through consultation and informed consent will guide the
patient in his/her willingness or not to pursue surgery.
Well performed aesthetic surgery, used wisely and skilfully by skilled
surgeons may be one way to help people find balance and harmony both
physically and psychologically.