Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

It is becoming increasingly popular for teenagers who are the victims of bullies to turn towards plastic surgery in order to boost their self-esteem. One teenager resorted to a new nose, chin and ears at the extremely young age of 14 after being taunted by school bullies. Her classmates would call her ‘Dumbo’ ever since she was six years old. She felt that by having surgery she could stop the abuse.

Outrage around the globe

This teenager’s story was shown on CNN and sparked outrage from many over the fact that young children were having surgery so that they would not be bullied anymore.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released figures showing that over the last 15 years more and more teenagers have been having plastic surgery such as breast enlargements, hair removal, rhinoplasty and ear pinning. Doctors argue that teenagers should learn other methods to deal with bullies rather than resorting to surgery at such a young age.

Popular treatments

In America, nearly a quarter of a million teenagers have cosmetic procedures in America. Two of the most common treatments were to pin back the ears and to treat a cleft palette. In Britain, a survey of plastic surgeons revealed that there are still a very low percentage of teenagers having treatments, with only one or two coming into surgeries.

In America patients can go straight to a plastic surgeon for treatment whereas in the UK patients have to go to their GP’s first and get referred to a plastic surgeon. This means that many cases where plastic surgery is not needed can be screened out.

From September 2012, Anglia Ruskin University is offering a new course in cosmetic surgery, which will, it is claimed, further ensure the safety and reliability of cosmetic surgery procedures carried out in the UK. While all plastic surgeons working within the UK must already complete training, this new course hopes to boost the level of expertise amongst surgeons working particularly in areas of cosmetic surgery.

Practical knowledge

The course, after which successful students will graduate with an MSc (Master of Science), opens this September to all accredited plastic surgeons who are currently working within the country. Surgeons from other countries will be able to apply from September of 2013. Indeed, it is hoped that the course will mean that Brits no longer feel that it is necessary to travel abroad for reliable and cost-effective plastic surgery. Some plastic surgeons currently working in the UK may not be fully knowledgeable about cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation, despite having expertise in medical ‘reconstructive’ work (such as treating burns patients). This is due to the difference between NHS training and the fact that most cosmetic surgery is done in private practices.  It is this gap that surgeon Professor James Frame hopes to fill with this new course, which will be practice-based, ensuring that qualified graduates will have practical experience as well as theoretical knowledge.

The need for training

Headline-grabbing stories such as the recent scandal surrounding ‘faulty’ PIP breast implants show the need, says Professor. Frame, for cosmetic surgeons to be recognised within their own qualification, separate from other areas of plastic surgery. However, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), Fazel Fateh, claims that at present plastic surgeons do indeed receive training in cosmetic surgery as part of their NHS training. “Every trainee is taught the basic principles of aesthetic surgery,” he said, denying that the new MSc would be a necessary condition of being a “fully-qualified” plastic surgeon, although he did agree that the new course would certainly be “desirable for some.” At present, all plastic surgeons working within the UK undergo training, approved by the Royal College of Surgeons, which can last as long as seventeen years. However, the issue of practical experience specifically in the field of cosmetic surgery, and then operating in private practices without that experience, is the disjuncture that the new Anglia Ruskin course aims to bridge, helping patients feel secure knowing that their surgeon is highly qualified.

Denise Hendry, a former footballers wife, had no idea going in that her liposuction surgery would lead to her death. Dr. Gustaf Aniansson performed the surgery in Lancashire in 2002, and she died in 2009 while having surgery to repair the damage done.

Dr. Aniansson punctured Mrs. Hendry’s bowel nine times during the surgery, and is still practising in Sweden, where he comes from. Now another woman has complained about his techniques there.

The official cause of death for Ms. Hendry was meningitis, caused by bacteria that spread to her brain from her stomach. Coroner Jennifer Leeming stated that inflammation of the brain and blood clotting from an inserted drain contributed to death with the meningitis. The original relatively simple liposuction surgery was performed by Dr. Aniansson near Preston, Lancashire at the Broughton Park Hospital. Between 2002 and 2009, she had many surgeries to repair the damage, and it was during the last of these, at the Salford Royal Hospital, that she passed away in 2009.

Mrs. Hendry and 15 other women from Britian sued Dr. Aniansson for over £750,000, and won their cases. The National Care Standards Commission described her botched surgery as resulting from clumsiness. Her lawyer has now tried to get in touch with authorities in Dr. Aniansson’s native Sweden, but so far nothing has been done. He says that they have forwarded all information to the authorities there, including the complains from 46 different women, and the successful cases of the 16 women who sued him. Medical reports were also sent to Sweden.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare representative Anders Sunesson says that if the information was given to them in 2002 something could have been done, but since it has been seven years the courts will probably say no. The problem is that Mrs. Hendry just died in 2009 from complications obviously arising from his botched surgery. Still, Sweden is investigating the similar claims from a Swedish woman that Dr. Aniansson performed breast and stomach surgery on. He did remove himself from the General Medical Council register of his own free will in 2003, which complicates matters a little bit. There is hope that these new claims from Sweden will take this doctor out of circulation for good.

Euromonitor online magazine has discovered that in recent times cosmetic surgery procedures have been increasingly popular with the Chinese population and brought in approximately 2.98 billion this year alone. It has also been stated that this number will likely increase by 20 percent each year.

As of 2007, China’s skincare sector was worth 4.65 billion. This was due to the fact that many marketing companies introduced collagen as the new and novel anti-aging treatment for reducing the appearance and aptitude of wrinkles and fine lines on the face. For women who have been afraid of more invasive treatments such as botox and face-lift surgery, collagen seemed to be the ideal beauty supplement.

Furthermore, most Brits associate botox with over-sized lips caused from lip injections. Chinese women, on the other hand started to consume collagen as a drink substitute. This was due to the fact that there was a lot of hype about this supplement being able to give women youthful looking skin. Much of this hype was seen across Beijing and Shanghai departments stores who advertised that drinking collagen for a month would help women with the appearance of their skin.

In addition, DHC Cosmetics Company in China created a beauty supplement drink, which contains fish collagen; however, consumers were informed that these products do not have a foul fishy odor. Instead, this pale juice has a sour taste that is a little bit sweet.

The Chinese spokesperson for DHC stated consumers would see a noticeable difference in the texture and overall appearance of their skin if they sip this beauty supplement before they go to bed every night for ten days. This same spokesperson also stated that in order to reap the full benefits of this product, consumers will need to continue drinking it.

Many Chinese women are investing in this product at lightening speed because sales in collagen tablets have increased dramatically. One bottle of DHC China cherry flavored liquid costs 29.9 yuan and is considered a best seller.

However, there are skeptics and one such skeptic is Bian Huawei, who is a vice-director of nutrition at the Sun Yat-Sen University Hospital in Guangzhou. He believes that these supplements do not provide the women with any visible benefits.

Huawei then goes on to state that the amount of collagen the women are digesting when they drink this beauty supplement is not enough to give them the skin benefits they are seeking. He also adds that these women would have better results by eating more fruits and vegetables because they contain antioxidants.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has ordered an American hospital located in Los Angeles, California to pay over $222,000 in settlement fees to a woman who was given a double mastectomy, after which it was discovered that she did not actually suffer from breast cancer.

A patient at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Centre, Ana Jimenez-Salgado underwent a breast cancer screening via a biopsy in 2007. When the results were examined, two independent pathologists concluded that cancer was present and recommended a swift plan of action for her treatment.

Jimenez-Salgado participated in extensive operations to remove both breasts and restructure her chest area to allow for the changes in her bodily appearance. However according to reports, pathologists at County-USC studied the tissue in question following her operations and came to a different conclusion than that of the independent pathologists who had issued the original diagnosis. In actuality, Jimenez-Salgado did not suffer from cancer of the breast at all. Rather, it was found that she was afflicted with a harmless condition whose appearance bore similarities to cancerous cells.

Dismayed by the outcome, Jimenez-Salgado hurriedly filed a malpractice suit against the doctors who had provided her with the original incorrect breast cancer diagnosis, as well as the County-USC physicians who performed her operations. As a result of this situation, County-USC has instituted new regulations which require breast tissue samples that have been obtained from outside facilities to be further examined by county hospitals. Additionally, in an attempted quality control measure, County-USC has halted a previous practice of regularly sending patients to outside medical facilities to receive specific types of biopsies.

Surprisingly, this is not the first case of an inappropriate mastectomy recommendation as treatment for a patient diagnosed with breast cancer. Canada faced a similar problem which began in 2001. According to CBC News, a recent review revealed two cases of mistaken mastectomies. Both occurred at Hotel-Dieu Grace hospital, and were performed by the same physician. Although the first incidence is linked to 2001, the second took place eight years later.

County-USC could not be reached for comment regarding this incident.

It’s enough to make you wonder whether these people have ever heard of <i> inner </i> beauty. They’ve taken extreme measures to shed the looks they were born with in favor of embellished lips, straighter noses, and smaller chins. Whether they did it for fame or beauty, these people made it to our Top 6 List of crazy cosmetic surgeries in China.

6. They made her look younger, and her husband wanted them to change it back. Sixty-two-year-old Wu from the province of Chongqing in central China got cosmetic surgery in order to look younger and more attractive. The surgery was a success… too much so, according to her husband Zhang. The couple went ballroom dancing after the surgery and, to Zhang’s chagrin, Wu was suddenly a hot item among the men there. So he did what no sane man with a hot, young-looking wife should ever do… he asked for a divorce. After much persuasion from their children, the couple eventually reconciled.

5. Xiaoqing walked out on a boyfriend whose Jessica Alba fetish went way too far. Considering he’d been making her wear a blond wig and fake eyelashes anytime they went out in public, that was probably a good choice. Sadly, she later changed her mind and tried to get him back in a rather extreme way. She made the ultimate profession of obsession by getting a number of plastic surgeries that made her look like <a href=”http://www.chinahush.com/2010/01/31/chinese-girl-getting-cosmetic-surgery-to-look-like-jessica-alba-to-win-her-boyfriend-back/”>Jessica Alba’s Chinese twin</a>. A bold move, but to her credit, it did work. She got back the boy, if not her self-esteem.

4. Middle school and high school students are taking advantage of the free summer months to do something unusual for their age: recover from plastic surgery. In Guangzhou, a city in the Guangdong province of southeastern China, three hospitals report that 90% of the patients in their plastic surgery wards are middle school graduates. It apparently has become a trend for parents to finance these cosmetic surgeries in order to help their children feel more socially competent as they enter high school.

3. Imagine spending $24,100 (RMB 200,000) to have a surgeon overhaul your appearance. A 30-year-old woman in Kunming, a city in the Yunnan province of southern China, had 48 purely cosmetic operations over a five-year period. Is it possible to have 48 operations and still look anything like your old self? Probably not.

2. A 19-year-old from Changsha, Hunan, in southeastern China, would give up a kidney if he could be rich… literally. Zhou, a security guard, has placed his own kidney, testicle, and eyeball on the market because, as he says, it was the quickest way he could think of to get rich. More frighteningly, he has already received several bids.

1. The first ever “best artificial body” pageant was held in Beijing in 2004. Contestants between the ages of 17 and 62 had to present doctor-certified documentation of their cosmetic surgeries in order to participate. Feng Qian was named Miss Plastic Surgery 2004 for having had eye-widening surgery, cheek and waist liposuction, and Botox injections.

Infection of patients undergoing treatment in the UK is “not likely” reassures Mr Adrian Richards, an award-winning plastic surgeon with clinics in Harley Street and Buckinghamshire.  In an attempt to counteract the scare stories out today about the new ‘superbug’, New Delhi Metallo 1 (NDM-1), Mr Richards explains that infection is “highly unlikely” amongst most adults undergoing plastic surgery in the UK.

In his video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUI1L5WJPj0) Mr Richard explains that the bug originated in the Indian subcontinent and has caused concern amongst medical professionals as it resistant to known antibiotics.  There have been 50 cases reported in the UK, all from people who have undergone surgery within India or Pakistan and have since returned to the UK for further treatment.

Mr Richards reassures patients thinking of undergoing plastic surgery in the UK by explaining those susceptible of contracting the infection are those who are immuno-compromised, very young or very old.  If you have an open wound and have come into contact with someone who has recently visited India you should refrain from undergoing further surgical treatment.

The message for UK patients is that if they should discuss any concerns they have with their surgeon.  However, we should be reassured that healthy adults will have nothing to fear by being treated by reputable UK-based plastic surgeons who operate in highly sterile conditions.

The increased cost of medical procedures, coupled with a long waiting list, means many Britains are going over seas to have medical procedures done. No longer is going over sees reserved for cheap cosmetic surgery. Needed procedures, such as dentistry infertility treatments and hip replacement are what people go there now for.

There is controversy to it though. Antibiotics are running low due to the increased medical tourism. 1 in 20 people go over sees or outside of Britain or considering doing so to have medical procedures done. Countries such as Poland, Czech Republic and Bulgaria are increasing their medical tourism numbers, due to NHS cut backs and European currencies. With even more cuts planned for the NHS, more tourism medical procedures are seen in the future.

The British Medical Association or the BMA says do thorough research of any hospital or clinic that is over sees. The GP should be talked with as well and a patient should look into every aspect of the treatment they are looking at having done. Patients should consider the safety and health standards of the companies and what long distance travel will mean after a procedure has been completed.

Hospitals in Asia and India many times have doctors that have trained in America or Britain. These qualifications can easily be verified and they will speak clear English. Make sure English is spoken, this is very important when talking with nurses and other staff.

Also, treatments such as obesity, fertility, addition and hair transplants are being done abroad as well. Some procedures are less at first glance, however in the long run they do not save any money. A crown is less expensive in Spain, but the x-rays are more and are needed before and after the procedure is done. However, this cost can be recouped because an oral exam and consultation is free in Spain.

Furthermore, make sure that post care is covered as well. Have arrangements made or make sure they are part of the procedures package. This care is just as important as the procedure itself. Follow up visits and appointments should be clearly laid out with the over sees doctor, so that patients understand what they are receiving and how the procedure will be handled once it is completed.

The earthquake in Haiti has left many people injured and deformed. Many of the victims require complex reconstructive surgical procedures. World wide assistance has been offered but the problem seems to be overwhelming. Dr. Craig Hobar, of the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute, told the Dallas Morning News, “Either you say it’s too enormous; there’s no way; get me out of here – or you react like I hope we have; You say there’s too much pain and devastation, and I can’t fix it, but I’ve got to do everything I can do to help.” And he is truly doing everything that he can.

Dr. Hobar has steeped away from his practice in order to organize assistance for Haiti. He was approached to organize medical teams and logistics for specialists who wanted to help Haiti. By the fourth day after the quake Hobar was on the ground in Haiti along with two colleagues. This group performed around the clock amputations and trauma surgeries for three days. Hobar then returned to Texas to organize the help.

In 1991 Hobar had started a not-for-profit organization called Life Enhancement Association for People (LEAP). This organization performed medical missions around the world to help fix children’s facial and limb deformities, with annual medical missions. He said of the countries that they help, “For many of these countries we have become the team of last hope.”

Now LEAP has come to Haiti’s aid. The organization has donated over $100,000 and has brought together volunteers to mount a long-term presence in Haiti. Hundreds of surgeons and other medical personnel from as far away as Germany and Turkey have volunteered. The personnel are on week long rotations to provide the medical care needed, especially post operation treatment. Donors were also generously available when needed. Some business men even offered their private jets for transporting teams to Haiti.

In the midst of the relief effort Dr. Hobar was happy and depressed at the same time. He was happy to be helping where he was needed and sad to see the devastation surrounding the people of Haiti. A hand surgeon by the name of Dr. John Elfar summed it up well when he said, “You can’t do this work too long. It’ll break your heart. Still, it’s not very often you feel like you’ve gone to the right place and done the
right thing.”

Each surgeon has a different story concerning what lead them to choose cosmetic surgery. Many join because of the joy that they believe people can gain through their services. Dr. Michael Obeng is the chief plastic surgeon at St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio and he told his story to WYTV 33.

Dr. Obeng grew up in Ghana and it is there, during his childhood, that he decided he would one day become a plastic surgeon. In 1985 he saw the results of a reconstructive surgery performed on his neighbor who had suffered a facial disfigurement. The surgeons were from Operation Smile, a not-for-profit, volunteer
medical services organization that provides reconstructive facial surgery to children and young adults all around the world. The results were motivational to him and he told WYTV, “She had a whole new different outlook on life. That really inspired me to be a doctor, specifically a plastic surgeon.”

Not many children in Ghana dream of becoming a plastic surgeon but that is exactly what Obeng dreamed of, and he would not allow himself to fail. He moved to the states in 1993, where he attended medical school. He took a fellowship at Harvard Medical School, while also being an assistant surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr Obeng said, “I never let anything deter me, because when you have a
dream, people say you can’t do it, but actually it motivates you and makes you work harder.”

He has performed over 400 procedures and is doing complex reconstructions, cosmetic surgery, and hand surgery. He says of his patients, “These are people that would rather be treated elsewhere. But with my skill set, we’re able to keep these sets of patients in the Youngstown area, and it has been very rewarding.” Dr. Obeng is proud to be able to provide a service that is so badly needed for many who have deformities and disfigurements.

He has also started an organization to help provide reconstructive surgeries in other countries. The organization is called Restore Worldwide and it stands for Restoring Emotional Stability Through Outstanding Reconstructive Efforts. This organization obviously stems from his experiences of the life changing effect that reconstructive surgery can have on a person. Some of his efforts have been geared toward surgeries on women who have congenital breast deformities from breast cancer.

He has a goal of traveling to a different country each year, and teaching the local surgeons how to perform these reconstructive procedures. He knows that his organization cannot help everyone in each area that he visits. He says that he wants to teach the local physicians, “So when we leave they can still continue to do some of the work that we’re not able to get to.”