A newspaper from Australia has reported that the country is seeing a significant rise in the number of psychiatric patients who come to them after unsuccessful plastic surgery procedures. These patients are people who suffer from body image issues and who attempt to use plastic surgery to reduce their fears of inadequacy related to these issues. The problem is a psychological one which can not be cured by plastic surgery; the fact that the plastic surgery doesn't resolve the issues causes these people additional psychiatric stress and seems to be landing more and more of them in the hospital.
A good plastic surgeon will make sure to carefully interview patients prior to doing any plastic surgery procedures on them. Part of this interview is designed to give the doctor some insight into the patient's mental stability. It is important for the patient to have realistic expectations of what the plastic surgery results will be like as well as to have a generally good sense of body image. Failure to achieve that in advance of the procedure can result in dissatisfaction with the plastic surgery.
Question of the Day: What can plastic surgeons do to reduce the number of people who are dissatisfied with plastic surgery due to poor expectations about the results?
