It's perfectly normal to feel a surge of different emotions after plastic surgery, ranging from euphoria to anxiety or even depression. Your body has undergone a significant change and your mind needs time to process it. You may feel ecstatic one moment and anxious the next. Plastic and aesthetic surgeons regularly report high satisfaction rates among their patients and have provided clinical and empirical evidence that supports positive outcomes in terms of patient satisfaction with cosmetic surgery procedures.
1-4 In addition, it has been assumed that a positive change in the patient's physical appearance will lead to an improvement in their psychological well-being, including their self-confidence and self-esteem, 5-8 However, patient satisfaction with the procedures and changes in the Psychosocial status are two different things, although other related issues are related to each other. Patients may be satisfied with their change in appearance after the operation, but they may not experience any change in their psychological characteristics. The scant literature on whether the success of an aesthetic intervention actually results in a measurable and significant improvement in psychosocial functioning and psychological well-being2,9,10 suggests that this topic should be studied further. Some young people with pre-existing mood disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder, may be at greater risk of feeling worse after cosmetic surgery than of getting better. If they are not happy with the results, they may seek more surgeries to follow improving their appearance.
If someone is unhappy with their body image, should we offer them a surgical solution or should we help them address their anxieties? If you think this suggestion is an affront to people's right to do what they want with their bodies, consider it. According to seven epidemiological studies, women who enlarge their breasts have a suicide rate two or three times that of the general population. Presumably, there is an underlying dissatisfaction that causes some people to resort to breast surgery and that surgery doesn't solve. There is a known psychological condition called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and several studies suggest that about 10% of people who undergo cosmetic surgery have this condition.
However, if you have BDD, cosmetic surgery won't be effective in making you feel better about your body. According to activists, more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder. One of these conditions, anorexia, has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. Depending on the procedure, you may feel well enough to resume your regular activities in a few days. Other procedures, such as a tummy tuck, may take several weeks or months to recover.
Some people realize all the benefits of the procedure and don't feel pain within a few weeks. In the case of advanced procedures, such as facial feminization surgery, it can take up to a year for swelling to go away. A review of relevant studies suggests that most patients are generally satisfied with the results of their cosmetic surgeries. Researchers have also found that people who undergo cosmetic procedures often report a decrease in feelings of anxiety and depression and an overall improvement in their quality of life.
The media is full of makeover programs that praise cosmetic surgery and celebrities who look increasingly cheerful. Factors related to a poor psychosocial prognosis include being young, being a man, having unrealistic expectations regarding the procedure, undergoing previously unsatisfactory cosmetic surgery, having minimal deformity, having motivation based on relationship problems and a history of depression, anxiety or personality disorders. And up to 40 percent of young college-age adults express interest in undergoing cosmetic procedures in the future. Obviously, any history of legal proceedings, threats, or overt violence against previous cosmetic surgeons should raise serious concern.
Another important orientation for future research is the development of empirically based screening questionnaires to help surgeons select people to undergo aesthetic procedures that are likely to have a good psychosocial outcome. Likewise, if the cosmetic surgeon considers that the patient's problem is much more trivial than the patient perceives it, it should arouse suspicion that it is a body dysmorphic disorder. The authors conclude that, although most people seem satisfied with the outcome of cosmetic surgical procedures, some are not, so an attempt should be made to detect these people in cosmetic surgery settings. The authors reviewed the literature on the psychological and psychosocial outcomes of people undergoing cosmetic surgery to determine if elective cosmetic procedures improve psychological well-being and psychosocial functioning and if there are identifiable predictors of an unsatisfactory psychological outcome.
For people who experience distress related to their appearance, cosmetic surgery can increase confidence and improve self-esteem. Ultimately, cosmetic surgery can be a transformative journey that improves the physical and mental well-being of women in their 20s and 30s. Lately I have learned a lot more about all this, because I am part of an external working group of the Nuffield Bioethics Council on cosmetic procedures. Even if you're going to have cosmetic surgery, such as a facelift or a tummy tuck, and you don't have any fear of having it done, you can still experience depression afterward.
Studies were included that evaluated subjective ratings of satisfaction with aesthetic procedures, as well as variables such as suffering, body image, self-esteem, mood, social confidence, social interaction and quality of life.
