BY KHADIJAH BAWAZEER Plastic surgery has become an obsession for many women, which gives plastic surgeons a lucrative career. This is partly due to the improvements in plastic-surgery techniques but greatly due to media capitalization on women's constant desire to look beautiful or to keep them look young as they get older. Sometimes young women and men just want to correct what they think as imperfection in their faces, bodies or even hair. Plastic surgery is not new. It has existed for a long time but its main purpose was to correct body damages from accidents and burns. Unlike its current popular usages, the previous practice of plastic surgery did not raise ethical questions because correcting skin or body damages was deemed justifiable. However, nowadays people object to plastic surgery on moral or religious grounds and sometimes on social and psychological considerations. Some critics say that people who want to undergo plastic surgery lack self-confidence or self-satisfaction, which they may enjoy briefly until the “imperfection” resurfaces. Religious people believe that it displays one's dissatisfaction with what God has given them. Naturalists argue that it is against nature and its natural processes. They object to such cosmetic procedure like implants as tinkering with nature and will have some side effects. All of these arguments do not deter plastic surgery. Statistics show that Saudi women are the number one plastic-surgery clients in the Gulf region and third in the Arab world after the Lebanese and the Egyptians. Nose jobs or nose alterations are very popular among young women, which sometimes turn out to be funny when a nose job does not fit well with the facial features and the lousy job is easily recognized even from a distance. Plastic surgery sometimes goes well which makes one look good for a while. When the job goes awry, it has to be corrected by another surgery. After nose job, enlarging, de-sizing or firming breasts comes second, with older women comprising the majority of the clients as women's breast usually sags with age. Liposuction is also popular, along with facial firming, tommy tucks and lip enlargement. Botox, a drug used medically to treat certain muscular problems and cosmetically to remove wrinkles by temporarily paralyzing facial muscles, is often used in plastic surgery, although it is said to have dangerous side effects. Some neurophysiologists have warned that Botox, the so-called “miracle” anti-wrinkle treatment, has long-term side effects on the brain, nervous system and muscles. With or without the perils, I believe that we should accept ourselves as we are and be happy with whatever we have. Unless there is a serious need like correcting a damaged skin due to burns or parts of the body due to a serious accident, we should not take the risks unnecessarily. (The author can be reached at [email protected]) __
