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Cosmetic surgery stays popular across country
By Rema Christy
Jan 30th, 2003, Daily Trojan
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES - An April 2002 news release from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons stated that the number of people choosing cosmetic plastic surgery tripled between 1992 and 2001. Even with the onset of the first economic recession in a decade and the highest unemployment rate in seven years, ASPS reported that today's consumers continue to turn to plastic surgery to boost their looks and self-confidence.
"Especially in southern California, the stigma to improve one's appearance is going away, and people are becoming more and more willing to choose plastic surgery as a way of feeling better about themselves," said Dr. John Gross, chief of plastic surgery services at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center and associate professor of plastic surgery at the USC Keck School of Medicine.
According to the ASPS, the most common forms of surgical procedures in 2001 were nose reshapings, liposuctions, eyelid surgeries, breast augmentations and facelifts. Top non-surgical procedures were chemical peels, microdermabrasions - a surgical scraping of the skin to smooth or to remove pre-cancerous growths called keratoses - Botox injections, collagen injections and laser hair removals.
"Ordinary, everyday people are deciding to change themselves through various procedures for personal gratification," Gross said.
Many procedures available to the public offer safe, effective results with few or no downsides, Gross added.
In accordance with ASPS's statistics, students across campus seem to be more accepting toward cosmetic plastic surgery.
"A person's image is so important these days, especially with the media's computer-enhanced pictures and Hollywood," said Ken Shinoda, a junior majoring in business and real estate finance. "Why not get plastic surgery? You shouldn't have to justify it to anyone, but you should have a really good reason inside that makes sense to yourself."
Many students said they would be supportive of friends or family members who wanted plastic surgery but would not be interested in it themselves.
"I've never really thought about it for myself, and I don't really have a desire to improve anything," said Eva Baltimore, a sophomore majoring in communication. "If a friend felt like plastic surgery was going to make her happy, I don't think I could encourage her, but I wouldn't put her down about it either."
Although cosmetic plastic surgery is generally associated with women, ASPS reports also show a hike in plastic surgery for men. Breast reduction procedures are especially popular, with a 142 percent increase from 4,997 to 12,092 in the last decade.
"In general, men are more likely to undergo procedures that are less obvious and easier to hide," Gross said.
Male breast development, or gynecomastia, occurs because of certain hormones in the body or as a side effect of some medications and can now be treated with much smaller incisions than those that were required four to five years ago, Gross said. This improvement in the procedure may have been a factor in the increase of its popularity.
"We have also seen a greater increase in men interested in liposuction, although the ratio is still 80 to 20 in favor of women," Gross said. "With potential liposuction patients, though, for women or men, our first advice is always to encourage a better diet and exercise."
Several students expressed surprise at the increase in plastic surgery's popularity with men.
"I would not have expected that," Baltimore said. "There is more pressure on people in general, so I suppose I could see men being more interested in plastic surgery. I don't see it reaching the level of female interest, though. Women still have more pressure to look a certain way."
Some students expressed a preference for simply leaving things as they are.
"If (plastic surgery) is what you need, then go for it, but why not just let nature take its course?" said Andy Prochnow, a junior majoring in health promotion and disease prevention.
Although plastic surgery is often limited in many people's minds as referring primarily to aesthetic treatments, the field reaches to also include reconstructive surgery for victims of disease and accidents, Gross said. Medical students at the Keck School of Medicine learn that plastic surgery is a way of fixing patients' wounds, whether the term "wound" is meant literally in the sense of bodily disfigurement or "as a symbolic word used to express a discontentment in one's appearance, as in 'wounded by age,'" Gross added.
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