Teenagers go under the knife for beauty
What are we teaching our kids these days? Plastic surgery has welcomed the insecurities of teenagers with open arms and plenty of anesthetic. And where are the parents in all this? Well, they’re the ones paying the medical bills — more than 250,000 operation for patients under 18 years in 2007.
Well, I’ve got news for parents. There’s nothing even remotely glamorous about visiting with the real life version of Nip/Tuck. You get wheeled into surgery, the kind doctors knock you out and set to work with scalpels. They’re ready with the pain killers when you wake up.
Why go through all this pain and suffering? Well, so many of the kids get bullied in school. Other children (and some of the teachers) have Cruelty as their middles names. So it usually starts with acne. Your local health provider comes up with the news you want to hear. You can’t rub it off (that’s called dermabrasion when a trained professional does it). So it’s on with the Accutane. If it’s not pimples, it’s the nose or the breasts or. . . well, the list of body parts just goes on.
Now cosmetic surgeons are queuing up with just the treatment for you when the medication doesn’t cut it. And because everyone wants everything done yesterday — this is the age of instant gratification — you get it done. Except that you’ve still got to wait for the Accutane to work before they can work on your face or else the risk of scaring is great. That just leaves all those other body parts to work on while you’re waiting for those pesky spots to clear up.
