Children Turn to Plastic Surgery to Avoid Bullying, Revealed by Doctor
A plastic surgeon has revealed girls aged just 14 have had cosmetic surgery in order to escape being bullied at school.
Cosmetic surgeon and president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons Douglas McGeorge claimed he had adjusted a teenager‘s nose shape and performed breast enlargement procedures on other teens.
Mr McGeorge, who is a specialist in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, said some parents and children addressed him believing there were no other options to escape severe bullying. The surgeon did not think these procedures could be influenced by teenagers‘ wishes to look like celebrities they admired. ‘Children are very cruel and there’s a lot of stigma attached to appearance,’ said Mr McGeorge. However, charities against bullying claim that the bullies are the ones who need to change and not the ones that are bullied.
Mr McGeorge said he had already performed surgery on a 14-year-old girl’s nose costing around £3,500 after she was targeted over her appearance at three schools. Most plastic clinics do not agree to perform surgery on people who are younger than 18, but children are eligible to receive any medical treatment if their parents agree.
Mr McGeorge claimed that he was approached by the girl‘s parents as their last resort after none of the ways to stop the girl being harrassed had worked. The private surgeon said that the operation had completely changed the girl‘s life. ‘This was an unusual case, but the parents had been through every other option available before taking the decision,’ he added.
He said there have been cases when he was requested to perform breast enlargement procedures on young girls who were slower at developing sexually than other girls of the same age. They were given expandable breast implants to stop them from being harrassed.
To perform the procedure, the surgeons insert breast implants that work by slowly expanding the breast tissue. However, director of the charity Bullying UK Liz Carnell, said: ‘I don’t think bullying victims should be changing their appearance or anything about themselves to please the bullies. It is the bullies that have got the problem, not the victims.’
Director of children’s charity Kidscape Michelle Elliott was alarmed by the fact that young girls were requesting breast enlargement procedures. She said: ‘I can understand a child undergoing cosmetic surgery if there is something specifically wrong that needs correcting, regardless of the bullying, but not breast implants. That’s crazy.’
Last year, there has been a 150 per cent increase in teenagers demanding breast enlargement procedures.
Surgeons think that young girls choose surgical breast enlargement because of the influence of celebrities who have undergone plastic surgery in order to improve the appearance of their bodies. Statistics gathered from three of UK‘s biggest cosmetic surgery companies reveal that just under 600 teenagers between 18 and 19 had breast implants fitted in the past year.
