I was recently at an event when I was approached by a young lady who stated that she was in the wellness business. I told her that I was in the same business as well. I asked her what she did, and she told me that they were into healthy choices, healthy diets, exercise, acupuncture, and a variety of other homeopathic treatments. In fact, she stated that she tends to steer people away from plastic surgeons. Rather than get offended, I suggested to this nice lady that she had a somewhat black-and-white view of what plastic surgeons do.
I mentioned to her that in the last week I saw a 17-year-old female who had 34 GG cup size who needed a breast reduction. There is no amount of diet or exercise that can fix her situation. She suffers from neck and back pain and it affects her exercise. Her only option was a breast reduction, which is surgery. Another patient lost 150 pounds with gastric bypass surgery and had a huge amount of excess skin with abdominal rolls. She underwent an extended tummy tuck and now she can wear all kinds of clothes that she never dreamed of wearing before. We also see many patients who have had their abdominal muscles stretched out with pregnancy, and no matter how hard they exercise, the muscles and skin will not get back to normal. These are just a few of the situations in which plastic surgery helps people and they represent just the beginning of options. Of course, we perform breast augmentations, rhinoplasties, and facelifts, and these people benefit from this as well.
Living a healthy lifestyle is the best means for feeling good and looking good, however, there are many situations in which that just isn’t enough and cosmetic surgery can help. At the end of our conversation, this lady admitted that she had judged me prematurely and apologized.