Plastic surgery has been a branch of medicine for over 200 years. Believe it or not, the first professional rhinoplasty was performed in 1814. Joseph Karpu, British surgeon, is officially recognized as the first Pygmalion to improve a patient's appearance. This is how the beauty industry was born with a scalpel in hand.
However, not all surgeons manage to become Pygmalions: some patients after plastic surgery look like after a visit to Dr. Frankenstein. Particularly unlucky ones have to say goodbye not only to beauty, but also to health, and sometimes even to life. MedAboutMe talks about the dangers of plastic surgery and how to avoid them.
Pursuit of beauty
A pleasant sleep under the light touch of a scalpel, a short rehabilitation - and the result is obvious. Plastic surgeries, which originally appeared to help after trauma or to correct congenital abnormalities, have now become part of the huge beauty industry.
An increasing number of women (and men as well) consider plastic surgeries to be the norm, a requirement of society to "comply" and turn to clinics to correct natural or acquired imperfections. No matter how much information about unfortunate consequences and dangers is published, fewer and fewer people are afraid of manipulation of their appearance. A trend has been created that is very difficult to stop.
A new fashion in Brazil is gaining momentum - to give children of age plastic surgery. By the age of 18, more and more girls dream of changing the shape of their nose and chest, without thinking that even banal operations can cause pathology, especially in a growing body.
In the United States, a new type of gift for the birth of a child has appeared - the "postpartum care" package, which, in addition to babysitting services, includes breast augmentation and liposuction.
The Asian direction of plastic surgery has its own characteristics: interventions that bring the appearance closer to "European" standards are popular: an increase in the size of the eyes, correction of the shape of the eyelids, cheekbones, nose, lips.
According to experts, the number of plastic victims is growing in proportion to the popularity of surgery. Well, the reason for the popularity is considered to be aggressively imposed standards of beauty, which pushes people to absolutely physiologically unjustified changes in appearance. However, it is impossible to forbid dreaming of beauty and bonuses that the desired appearance will certainly bring. Moreover, when the tabloid pages have completely real examples of lucky ones.
Fact
Many fans of Frank Sinatra do not know that the singer's "eternal youth" is the result of the efforts of plastic surgeons and cosmetologists. At the time of his brilliant fame, such procedures were not widespread, and Sinatra became famous not only for his voice, but also for his bright, surprisingly long unfading appearance.
Another star example is actress Megan Fox. She owes her dizzying career not only to talent, but also to plasticity: even at the dawn of her career, Megan went through the correction of the shape of the noses, jaws, cheekbones and the shape of the eyes, which gave the actress's appearance originality and charm and distinguished from the crowd of candidates for roles in blockbusters.
Beauty is a subjective concept
According to research by the Swiss Medical Association, up to 40% of clients of Russian plastic surgeons are dissatisfied with the results of the operation. That is, almost every second patient is not satisfied with the result of the change in appearance. However, experts themselves believe that such a number of dissatisfied people are the result not of mistakes, but of incorrect expectations. Someone cannot cope with the realization that the ideal Roman nose cannot be fashioned from a classic "potato", and hopes for a miracle, despite the surgeon's warnings, someone fails to establish a personal life, even despite an enlarged bust, but some patients find it difficult "Get along" with a new appearance.
There are, of course, the results of medical errors and non-standard reactions of the patient's body. However, not everything is so simple here either.
Fact
According to Tagir Fayzullin, a plastic surgeon, the Internet and television provide a lot of false information about plastic surgery. So, surgical breast augmentation cannot be considered a dangerous operation, since the number of complications does not statistically exceed 1%, and this is not at all a bad indicator for surgical interventions. Medical errors, of course, cannot be ruled out, but on average for all types of plastic surgeries, they "do not exceed 5%."
Sponges with a bow, eyebrows with a house: the consequences of operations
The plastic surgery industry in Russia is quite young. It appeared officially only in 2009, and since 2013 the requirements for clinics and specialists have become more stringent. However, even after the introduction of stricter standards, patient satisfaction from operations does not grow: according to the Moscow City Bureau of Forensic Medicine, 8% of lawsuits for improper treatment come from patients of plastic surgeons.
Although, if we evaluate the scale globally, then in Russia the requirements for the industry have significantly reduced the number of "clandestine" clinics and home procedures.
The scandalous story shocked the tabloids of America: the Miami police detained plastic surgeon Onil Morris, who increased the volume of the clients' buttocks using a mixture of superglue and cement. For his manipulations, he took quite inexpensively, about $ 700, and this provided him with a flow of clients.
A similar case was in the state of New Jersey: a swindler doctor used a silicone-based construction sealant as a mixture to inject into the tissues of the buttocks.
According to Alexandra Rachel, an international expert in the field of plastic surgery, coupons, promotions and "super offers" for plastic surgery serve as bait for patients who do not realize the real cost of the procedures. For example, if a magazine contains an advertisement for breast augmentation "Mammoplasty for only 100,000 rubles!", Then this should immediately be alarming. Good, high-quality implants start at 80,000, anesthesia costs about 35,000 rubles. To this must be added the work of at least three specialists. This means that for 100,000 you can get outdated implants with an expired shelf life, anesthesia of poor quality and the same quality of doctors, since good specialists will not work for such amounts.
Errors are evident
However, even huge sums and super-professionals are not a guarantee of beauty. An example is the "cream of society" horrifying the public with unfortunate results. Let's consider examples of unsuccessful operations and the possible consequences of each of them.
Chin up
Although plastic surgeons themselves are not particularly willing to rank operations according to danger and unpredictability, most still consider the interventions on bone structures to be the most difficult. For example, rhinoplasty. The problem is not only in the jewelry subtlety of the work, but also in the fact that many of the surgeon's clients, even despite the 3D modeling programs, do not quite understand how harmoniously the new nose shape will look on the face, and as a result, dissatisfaction pushes them to new corrections.
Michael Jackson is a classic example. Although the singer himself confessed only to a couple of operations, over the 20 years of his stage life, he repeatedly changed the shape of his nose, cheekbones, lips and chin. As a result, the degeneration of the nasal cartilage began, and it literally failed. Subsequent attempts at beauty correction did not add, and in recent photographs, Jackson can be seen with a rather unsympathetic nose shape.
Tighten your chest, draw in your stomach
Modern 3D modeling technologies help women to determine in advance the shape of their breasts, depending on the chosen implant. However, this is not a guarantee of one hundred percent success. The reasons can be varied.
Possible unpleasant consequences of mammoplasty include hematomas, seromas, capsular contractures, displacement and rupture of the implant, the formation of a double fold, lymphomas, up to the fusion of both breasts. There is also a moment of psychological acceptance of oneself with new forms, and it is also important.
The consequences of mammoplasty were and are not only suffered by those who decided to undergo surgery at a discount. The tabloids are full of star names and photographs of women in whom one breast is larger than the other, the glands sag, despite the correction, change their shape. Among the last victims are Ivanka Trump and Janet Jackson.
And the Russian celebrity Yulia Nachalova suffered twice: after feeding her daughter Vera, she decided on mammoplasty to improve her shape. The operation was successful, but there was no satisfaction.
“Psychological problems have arisen: as if the breast is someone else's, is a different creature and lives its own life,” said Yulia in an interview. Having decided to remove the implants, the singer turned to one of the most famous clinics serving stars like Britney Spears. But the operation ended not quite successfully.
“It was difficult for me to walk and move in general. A few days later, I myself began to go to the clinic for examinations. But the wounds did not heal, on the contrary, they became inflamed more and more. I was tormented by weakness, malaise, everything hurt. And about a week later, a terrible chill began, the temperature jumped to forty and did not go down categorically."
It turned out that the complication was sepsis, which caused renal failure. The treatment had to be long and difficult, today Julia is quite happy with her "old" breast and does not think about a new correction.
Liposuction, one of the easiest operations, according to patients, is also dangerous. And it is dangerous not only by possible irregularities due to the redistribution of fat or sagging skin, but also by fat embolism, when a tiny piece of adipose tissue (fat embolus) enters the blood vessels and clogs them. Penetrating, for example, into a large pulmonary artery, such a piece causes a total vascular spasm and death. Statistically, death overtakes 1 patient out of 10,000 who decide to lose weight with surgery.
Specialists especially warn about the dangers of combined operations included in the "proposals for young mothers". Although mammoplasty and liposuction are cheaper at the same time, anesthesia and rehabilitation have to be experienced only once, but the likelihood of complications is higher.
Lift my eyelids
Eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, leads mainly to complications of an aesthetic nature, when the result does not suit the patient or frightens others. There are three main complications, and they already have their own colorful names: "dead eyes" (with sunken, deep-set eyelids), "spaniel eyes" (with eversion of the eyelids) and round eyes, as if bulging. Moreover, the latter option is so widespread in Russia that it is not considered a complication in patients.
Vera Alentova, a famous actress, starring in the most popular film of the eighties "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" and an idol of a whole generation, agreed to several operations at once: a circular lift, changing the shape and volume of lips, blepharoplasty and correction of the double chin. Fans are not delighted - these interventions did not add beauty to the actress.
With frequent eyelid corrections, the effect is even worse: the face becomes like a mask, and the eyes are reduced to the size of slits. Donatella Versace, daughter of the founder of the Versace fashion house, is an example of an excessive passion for blepharoplasty.
Lips with a chubby bow
Correction of the shape and volume of lips is extremely popular, and smiles of a "duck" with pumped lips can be seen on many pages in social networks. The complications of such an operation are mainly associated with the distortion of the shape, and also (which attractive young ladies usually keep silent about) with the loss of sensitivity of this seductive part of the face.
Masha Malinovskaya does not hide her love for plastic surgery. She began to improve her appearance a long time ago, having gone through breast surgery and lip augmentation. But the craving for beauty ruined the pop diva: the second lip correction ended unsuccessfully, and it can be seen.
Baby skin
When lifting the skin of the face, aesthetic claims of patients are frequent. Excessive tension leads to thinning of the skin, distortions of appearance. And with the endoscopic lifting method popular today, an inexperienced surgeon can cross the facial nerve, which causes irreversible complications: a half-closed eye, drooping of one eyebrow, exposure of the front teeth or constantly raised corners of the mouth.
The most "impressive" beauty victims are Jocelyn Wildenstein and Mickey Rourke. If Rourke had to turn to surgeons because of the consequences of fights in the ring, then the socialite Wildenstein was fond of plastic surgery for a decade, and today in her face you can see the features of a lioness rather than a person. In total, the operation for corrections and improvements cost the lady more than $ 4 million.
Die for beauty
According to experts, light surgery is a myth. Any operation can lead to complications. And this risk is always there, and complications can be not only aesthetic, but also lethal. Literally every 2-3 months in recent years, there have been reports in the media about the death of patients of plastic surgeons.
The last high-profile story is about the death of a Muscovite Ekaterina Kiseleva on April 14. A 32-year-old mother of two children died on the operating table during mammoplasty. The clinic where the operation was carried out refused to contact relatives, as a result of which a criminal case was opened on the fact of the death of the patient.
A year ago, in Volgograd, a 23-year-old girl died in the process of correcting her chin. The criminal case has been completed. At the same time, the examination was carried out twice: according to the results of the first, death occurred due to an allergic reaction with the introduction of anesthesia, according to the results of the second, gross violations of legislative norms in the clinic were revealed. The private clinic was fined.
A 54-year-old woman died after face and neck lifting operations in Moscow.
In Tula, a 34-year-old woman died after receiving an injection of an anesthetic drug.
There are many examples, and we know only those that reach the courts and the media. The part is decided on the spot by an "agreement" between the clinic and the relatives or victims, if the latter manage to remain alive and capable. Penalties for negligence and mistakes are quite insignificant in the scale of the cost of plastic surgery.
A 48-year-old Muscovite went to court because of poorly performed rhinoplasty, which resulted in health problems of "moderate severity." As a result of the trial, she was awarded compensation in the amount of 50,000 rubles.
Oksana Pushkina, who went through an unsuccessful mesotherapy procedure, achieved the same compensation. Instead of the promised rejuvenation, the skin became covered with spots and bumps. Pushkina says that the mixture used during the procedure contained microscopic organic fiber inclusions, which caused complications.
The clinic has a license, and not just general medical, but with a mandatory permit for plastic surgery (general, maxillofacial surgery, surgical cosmetology), a compulsory intensive care unit and hospital are the necessary requirements. A team of at least 7 specialists must be constantly present in the clinic, and this is only for plastic surgeries. Lawyers strongly recommend: no matter how good the relationship with the surgeon and the staff is, before signing the contract, it is necessary to check that all permits and all conditions are met.
According to article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Provision of services that do not meet the requirements of the safety of life or health of consumers", medical errors can result in the withdrawal of the license, the closure of the clinic and a term of imprisonment for the defendant up to 2 years. And how really?
Elchin Mamedov, a surgeon known for his "author's techniques" - the former owner of two elite plastic surgery clinics. Muz-TV star and expert of the "Terribly Beautiful" program, Mammadov, after several lawsuits for causing harm to patients, returned to Azerbaijan. On the fact of the investigations, it turned out that the maxillofacial operations were performed by a person with a pediatrician diploma.
You can go to the doctor's clinics today, they are managed by Mammadov's brother. And the doctor himself continues to operate at home, inviting Russian women to visit Azerbaijan and find new beauty.
Unsuccessful plastic surgery can bring more than aesthetic disappointments. Health problems, the likelihood of death - before deciding on an improvement in appearance, one must be aware of such possible consequences and clearly understand that the choice may not be between the "old" and the new appearance, but between life and death.
