Can Plastic Surgery Improve Quality Of Life
Today, we live in a digital world. The world is well connected and digitally, we can reach anywhere in seconds. With the increasing use of social media, even small imperfections, blemishes and signs of ageing are constantly under the microscope and are visible to our audience, which includes not only friends and family but also employers and others. In the realm of aesthetic medicine and surgery, we often come across individuals, who are concerned about imperfections such as a barely visible hump on the nose, a receding hairline, beginning of wrinkles at the forehead or around eyes etc. Then there are others, who are completely unconcerned with a bald pate, a big tummy, or signs of ageing etc. In the individuals who are concerned about their appearance, even a small imperfection engages their mind constantly, leading to preoccupation, worries and distraction from their occupation. These can be corrected easily, thus restoring their health.
One of the common conditions, the plastic surgeons treat is enlargement of male breast (gynecomastia). A young male suffering this is unable to wear tight-fitting shirts or T-shirts and is embarrassed to expose his chest in gyms, changing rooms and swimming pools. Also, imagine a young female with unusually heavy breasts or poor breast development, or a middle-aged female with sagging breasts. A person with hanging abdominal folds after multiple pregnancies or weight loss. All these people struggle to find compatible clothing, have pain due to hanging weight, difficulty in moving about or exercising, as well as multiple skin infections in folds. These conditions are easily treated by aesthetic plastic surgery, thus improving their quality of life.
Similarly, a young male, who has a lot of socializing ahead of him, but has a receding hairline, a person who aspires to be a model, actor or cabin crew, with a nasal hump or broad nose, or a receding chin spend a lot of time agonizing over their apparent issues and can readily be helped by plastic surgery.
As we age, the signs of ageing start showing up. These typically begin around the eyes, with under eye dark circles or hollows, followed by crow’s feet lines (smile lines) around the outer aspect of eyes, drooping of eyebrows, vertical and horizontal lines on forehead, deepening of nasolabial folds, down-turning of angles of mouth, extra skin at upper eyelids, bulge and extra skin at lower eyelids, decreased malar prominence, sagging of cheeks, double chin and neck folds. These are a source of extreme discomfort, especially for a social person, and can be addressed by a plastic surgeon.
A person with jaw cancer, whose jaw has been removed by Onco-surgeon, would be unable to move out of his residence if it was not reconstructed at the same time by plastic surgery. Similarly, a lady whose breast has been removed for cancer treatment would have to agonize every day over an appropriate choice of clothing, if it wasn’t reconstructed by a plastic surgeon. Accidents, assaults, burns are often responsible for damage or loss of features, leaving the patient with a restricted lifestyle. Most of these can often be treated by reconstructive plastic surgery. One of the commonest birth defects is a cleft lip, in which, the patient has a cleft in the upper lip extending to nose. Patients with this and most other birth defects can be helped by plastic surgery, leading them to near normal lifestyle.
Hence, the answer is yes, plastic surgery does improve the quality of life.
