Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

The pressure of looking good and having a nice body has grown overwhelming in today’s society. Men and women alike feel that they must look good to be successful. In many ways, this is true. In order to remain marketable in the job market or to get those promotions, looking good is essential. This ideal has leaked into the psych of teens, who are undergoing a rising number of cosmetic procedures.

The pressure of looking good is felt very keenly by teens. They are picked on at school because of a wide range of physical differences. It doesn’t take much of a difference for a bully to pick at. Many teens are awed by a celebrity idol and they dream of looking as beautiful, as that celebrity. The teen years have always been hard, but now there is a way to lighten some of that burden. Plastic surgery can help to give teens the confidence that they lack and allow them to be more accepted among their peers.

Natural News reported that the figures for 2008, from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, showed that surgeries performed on people under the age of 19 was very high. In fact 160,283 U.S. residents of that age underwent some form of cosmetic surgery. The surgeries ranged from breast augmentation and liposuction to hair removal and birthmark removal.

369 people of that age group actually had a controversial procedure called blepharoplasty. Blepharoplasty, also know as ‘Asian eye surgery,’ is a surgery where the eyes of people of Asian descent are widened. Gerald Pitman, a plastic surgeon in New York City, told USA Today, “The kids I see, their desire is almost uniformly to be normal, non-deviant. Kids don’t want to stand out in a negative way.”

The fact that cosmetic surgery has become very mainstream has made society much less judgmental about it. If a person is willing to undergo a procedure to make themselves look and feel better wouldn’t they do the same for their child? Donn Chatham, president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, told Natural News, “…parents may themselves even be undergoing cosmetic surgery and may feel for our children that it’s not such a stretch.”

Many parents and surgeons believe that since the technology exists and can benefit their children, then there is nothing wrong with using it. Most people have cosmetic surgery to give them confidence and allow them to live a happier, more full life. In this regard, people under the age of 19 are no different.

The quantity of plastic surgical procedures performed continues to top record numbers each year. Cosmetic surgery has become progressively more popular and is available to a wider range of individuals. Older people have procedures done to look younger and over-weight people get surgery done to be thinner. Men and women alike undergo plastic surgery to reshape the contours of their body. It has even been shown that teenagers are enthusiastic about plastic surgery.

A research study performed by GoodSurgeonGuide.co.ik said that 41 percent of girls between the ages of 13-16 years old are already considering a cosmetic procedure. That’s a little more than two in every five girls. Of the girls who said that they wanted a procedure done, 62 percent said they wanted bigger breasts, 55 percent wanted to change their teeth and 49 percent wanted some form of surgery for weight loss. Around 33 percent also thought that some nose work would be good too.

The study asked 1,012 girls in this age group about their views on cosmetic procedures and the answers were overwhelmingly positive from most of the girls. The media today has raised the awareness of the public concerning plastic surgeries. The majority of this media coverage is very flattering and thus, many people are more comfortable with considering cosmetic surgeries. It is not surprising that young girls have dreams of undergoing a procedure to make themselves more beautiful.

When asked about what concerns are making the girls consider plastic surgeries their answers were typical. Many teens are picked on at school about something and physical appearance is usually on the top of the list for bullies to pick at. Twenty-five percent of the girls said that they would change their appearance so that they would no longer be bullied about it at school. Celebrity worship is another category that pushed these girls to consider having plastic surgery. Most girls have some celebrity role model whom they idolize. Eleven percent said that considering a cosmetic procedure hinged on the fact that their celebrity role model had some plastic surgery done. Society promotes good looking bodies and pretty faces, as necessary for success, and teens see this idea everywhere they look.

Some of these teens, 49 percent, wanted to have the procedure now and 7 percent had already had some plastic surgery done. The co-founder of GoodSurgeonGuide.co.uk, Christiana Clogg commented, “If parents find themselves in situations where their children want surgery and they decide to support them, it is vital that the correct research is carried out to ensure teenagers don’t become victims of bad surgeons.”

Having a positive body image seems to be on the decline with teenage girls today as statistics show that almost half of all secondary age girls would consider some time of plastic surgery as an option to alter the way they look.

Dieting is also on the rise suggesting that social attitudes of today’s young women are strongly predicated by the way they look.

The noted organization GirlGuiding UK has authored a study involving more than a thousand girls between the ages of 7 and 21 to find that young women today consider plastic surgery to be a thing that will be readily available and acceptable to them as adults.

Citing the increase in plastic surgery reality television shows and the prevelant use of the procedures by celebrities, the study suggests that there is little to no negative stigma connected to having a plastic surgery procedure done. Seen almost on the same level as dieting, girls see cosmetic enhancements as a way to improve their social standing and self esteem.

The trend of younger girls becoming overly focused on physical appearance is a particularly alarming one. Twenty-seven percent of girls aged 10 and 11 say that they are not happy with their physical appearance, while one in eight girls aged 10 and 11 confess to wanting to be thinner. One disturbing trend in the data is the connection between a positive body image and how well a girl is doing in school.

 When a young woman is not achieving in school, her self worth is greater connected to her appearance making the statistics of girls considering cosmetic surgery greater with underachieving students.

Nicola Grinstead, a trustee of Girlguiding UK says, “Girls and young women are telling us that they are finding it quite hard to accept their appearance, and it is starting at a much earlier age than we had previously thought.” Though the statistics are cause for concern, organizations such as Girlguiding UK feel that the answers are found in positively educating young people about body image and self esteem.

A new study shows that the average teenager will spend close to 31 hours a week surfing the web and not all of the sites they are visiting are social networking and gaming sites.

Many of the hours teens spend on the internet are spent in viewing sites they’d rather not let their parents know about. With so much information readily available on the web kids today are finding it easier to get answers to their intimate questions from anonymous web sites rather than from asking mom and dad.

Studies show that teens are spending upwards of one hour and forty minutes a week browsing soft porn web sites and as many as one hour and thirty-five minutes a week looking at web sites dealing with dieting and weight loss. In a modern day twist teens are now spending more than one hour and eight minutes a week exploring cosmetic surgery websites with the specific procedures of breast implants, nose jobs, and butt lifts being the most widely explored issues.

With most teenagers having unsupervised use of the computer for up to two hours a day, there is no way for parents to regulate the sites their children are visiting. Most teens confess to taking precautions to hide which sites they visit from their parents and are not eager to reveal the subject matter that interests them to the people who matter most in their lives.

Ellie Puddle, the marketing director for Cyber Sentinel stated: “The research shows that teenagers are exploring al sorts of topics as a result of modern day pressures.” In addition to viewing questionable websites, there is also an alarming rise in teens talking to strangers over the internet. Seeing it as a harmless way t make friends teenagers have no qualms with starting up a conversation with a person they don’t know. Experts say that since the internet is so widely available at school and on phone applications it is important for today’s young people to become proactive and stay in control of their own internet use.

A spokesperson for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre encourages teenagers to report suspicious behaviors of people they meet on line, and be honest with their parents regarding the web sites they are visiting. So much of a teen’s perceptions of the world today are formed not by the family unit at home, but by the virtual strangers who publish web sites and online chat room experiences.

A recent study has shown that nine out of ten teenage girls are unhappy with their bodies. Citing weight issues and dissatisfaction with heir breast size as the number one complaints, over 26 per cent of those surveyed said that they were considering plastic surgery.

These findings are disturbing considering that plastic surgery for teens has risen 500 per cent in the last three years with no end in sight. A recent BBC television programme took several teenagers on the road to meet up with other teens who have had cosmetic procedures done. Through honest dialogue the programme was able to change some minds regarding surgery and positive body image issues.

Thirteen year old Kianna has wanted to have breast implants for as long as she ca remember. She states: “The things I don’t like about my body are my breasts…I spend almost 100% of my life thinking about it.” Kianna’s mother doesn’t know where this obsession has come from but fears for her strong willed daughter who will not easily give up the dream of having a larger cup size.

On the BBC road trip Kiana met up wth 17 year old Katrina who is looking to plastic surgery as a quick fix for her self esteem issues. When asked about breast implants Katrina said, “I do want them to look a little bit fake like I have had them done…because then I’ll be more confident in showing other people ‘cos they won’t be mine.” These two young women were able to send their time on the trip chatting with others who have had the surgery done and don’t have positive things to say about it.

After hearing the horror stories of the pain involved with the procedure and the scars left behind, Katrina was still excited about the surgery, but more willing to weight awhile before she goes under the knife. Kianna changed her mind altogether, considering how her future hoped for career as a dancer might be thwarted by bigger breasts.

As disturbing as the attitudes of both these young women are, they are attitudes shared by many women today who struggle with poor body images. It is especially important for teenagers to undergo pre-surgical counseling to make sure they are having the surgery for the right reasons. Better still, a campaign for re-educating youth as to the nature of beauty might go a long way t improving the statistics of girls with a positive body image.

 Plastic surgery is being seen as a way to fix what is wrong in a young person’s life, but most teenagers simply don’t have the maturity to make an informed decision when it comes to cosmetic procedures.

A new survey suggests that the pressures on young girls to look thin and beautiful are greater than ever.

Girls as young as ten years old are becoming aware of their physical appearance and the research shows that with that awareness comes dissatisfaction. A rise in extreme dieting, binge drinking, and eating disorders has been attributed to the lack of positive self esteem teens and pre-teens have been exhibiting in today’s society.

Researchers for Girlguiding UK have found that on average, a girl starts to think about her weight at age ten. Most girls between the ages of 11 and 16 confess to dieting to achieve the slimmer look seen in media ads and television shows. Over 24 per cent of girls age 16 to 21 say that they would undergo plastic surgery to correct perceived physical faults.

Dai Davies, a consultant for the Plastic Surgery Partners organization is concerned about how the media is manipulating the definition of beauty and causing young women to seek unrealistic goals when it comes to their personal appearance. “Girls are under so much pressure to conform to society’s view of what is beautiful that it is no wonder that they are considering plastic surgery so young.” Davies believes that a re-education program is needed to teach young women about beauty and the fact that cosmetic surgery is not necessarily the answer.

Davies advocates patients waiting until they are 18 years old to have a cosmetic procedure done, stated that it is important to give the body time to grow into its features.

As disturbing as the statistics of the Girlguiding survey are, more disturbing is the fact that somewhere in our society girls have been exposed to the perception that their bodies are somehow unsatisfactory enough to want to alter them.

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire sees the survey as evidence that girls are under much more pressure than they were even five years ago. As Davies suggested, perhaps it is paramount for society to re-educate the youth about what constitutes a beautiful person and teach our young people that there is more to beauty than what a surgical scalpel can alter.