As a cosmetic surgeon and anti-aging doctor in the general practice branch, for some time I have been critical of the repugnantly unnatural results that an unbridled zeal for plastic surgery is leaving behind on an increasing number of increasingly younger patients worldwide!
In some respects cosmetic surgery is in disorder, there’s no doubt about that! The problem, however, lies not with cosmetic surgeons who were not trained as plastic surgeons but still perform cosmetic surgery. Why shouldn’t they do so? After all, general practitioners and doctors in other specialties were key proponents of cosmetic surgery long before there ever was a plastic surgery specialty, which incidentally has only been existence in Austria for 20 years or so. But neither can cosmetic surgery be reserved for plastic surgeons, as it is generally known that they have had no more cosmetic surgery training in their hospital internships than any other doctor. Hence the plastic surgeon, just like the rest of us cosmetic surgeons, had to attend the “training courses” that Prof. Turkof (whom I highly respect) rightfully advocated in the article entitled “The Beauty Battlefield” (Schlachtfeld Schönheit) in Profil 36/08.
To a much greater extent the problem lies in the fact that plastic surgeons tend to favor methods involving operations, as their training focused on reconstructive surgery after tumors and accidents. From a surgical standpoint, however, such methods often entail grandiose performances that are too invasive and stressful for the subtle improvements in appearance and body shape demanded in cosmetic surgery. Hand in hand with unrealistic alteration wishes (take Michael Jackson, for example), the result is a high rate of complications as well as many patients with an overly-tightened, unnatural look.
For the well-being of the patients, what is needed is a New Cosmetic Surgery in which operations are gentle and non-invasive, and wherein scalpels, silicone, and plastic are dispensed with as much as possible! This New Cosmetic Surgery must be entrusted to doctors with extensive medical training and capable of thinking across disciplines; ones who won’t resort to plastic reconstructive operations as a primary means for solving every cosmetic problem caused by stress and hormone deficiencies.
This New Cosmetic Surgery exists already: it is based on minimally invasive cosmetic interventions, autologous stem cells, and bioidentical hormones. It spares women undergoing breast and facial surgery from scalpels, plastic, and silicone, produces natural looking results, and means a substantial improvement in health and quality of life!
Hollywood does indeed set trends in many areas, but even in Hollywood the era of overly tightened doll faces and silicone breasts is coming to an end. Many stars are turning away from plastic surgery and swear by the gentler methods of New Cosmetic Surgery! Hence we can be cautiously optimistic that in the future there will be less bloodshed on the “beauty battlefield!”
DDr. Heinrich, MD