Plastic surgery often gets a bad reputation as being pure vanity, as if its only use is to make rich, attractive people more attractive. It is also criticized as being against everything nature intended. The fact of the matter is, it is Hollywood and instances of “plastic surgery gone wrong” that give these procedures a bad reputation. Not all plastic surgery is vanity or a misuse of medical science. There are a number of circumstances that make plastic surgery a worthwhile cosmetic procedure.
Consider people who are scarred or disfigured in a heroic act, like rescuing someone from a burning building or intervening into a violent situation. For people who go through this kind of trauma, cosmetic surgery is certainly not vanity. It is an opportunity to gain back the confidence that was lost in an unfortunate accident, and restore physical features that the person was born with.
Hollywood is the place that comes to everyone’s mind when plastic surgery is mentioned. It is safe to say that plastic surgery has been misused in Hollywood more than once. This does not mean that other places in North America follow Hollywood’s poor example of plastic surgery uses. Other liberal, highly educated cities in the United States, such as Seattle and Minneapolis, do not value the excessive plastic surgery that is found in Hollywood. In Canada, Vancouver, Calgary and Kelowna cosmetic surgerypractices give Western Canadians a number of ethical plastic surgery options, and Eastern Canada has a very high value on practicing ethical cosmetic procedures.
Be mindful not to criticize the majority of plastic surgery recipients for the crimes of the minority who have not taken plastic surgery as seriously as they should have. Plastic surgery, when used tastefully and ethically, can restore a person’s confidence, raise their self esteem, give them back parts of themselves that were lost and change a person for the better. Cosmetic surgery is a positive service to have available to those who are willing to treat it like the life altering procedure that it is.