Understanding the Risks of Popular Cosmetic Surgeries

Cosmetic surgery has boomed in the last few decades, and especially so in the last five to ten years. This boom can be attributed to a number of factors, including decreased costs of certain procedures and increased public acceptance of surgical intervention in pursuit of personal satisfaction. Indeed, cosmetic surgeries are a form of gender affirming procedure, linked to improved self-esteem and better long-term mental health.

According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (or BAAPS for short), women account for 93% of all plastic surgery patients. Amongst those women plastic surgery patients, three of the five most popular cosmetic procedures were breast augmentations, rhinoplasties and liposuction. Beneficial as plastic surgeries like these can be to mental health, they are not immune from risks elsewhere. Here, we will examine these three popular surgeries, and the risks they can introduce.

Breast Augmentation 

Breast augmentations or enhancements, colloquially referred to as the ‘boob job’, involve inserting silicone or saline implants to enhance the size and shape of the breasts. This may be done to improve self-esteem after a life- and body-changing event like pregnancy, or as a gender-affirming surgery for a transgender woman. 

Being a major surgical intervention, the most common inherent risks to personal health are infection and scarring. Scarring is a near-guaranteed side-effect, owing to the invasive nature of the work – but serious scarring could cause detrimental mental health impacts. Implant rupture or leakage could also happen in extreme cases, naturally requiring revision surgery to rectify.

Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty is a form of facial reconstruction surgery, which seeks to reshapes or reconstruct the nose to improve appearance or breathing function. It is an elective procedure by nature, though it may be undertaken in order to restore breathing function for medical purposes, or after a traumatic injury causes nasal obstruction. Many rhinoplasties are simply to change the profile of the face, though, by reshaping bone and cartilage.

Rhinoplasty can be a destructive medical procedure, and hence patients are often prone to swelling and bruising after the fact – as well as short-term breathing difficulties. However, in rare cases this swelling and breathing difficulty can persist. Medical negligence can occur during a rhinoplasty, leading to negative results ranging from facial asymmetry to serious infection; in the event of such negligence, medical negligence solicitors are a must for you to contact.

Liposuction

Liposuction is a relatively basic cosmetic procedure, which, rather than adding implants or permanently reshaping bone structure, removes fat deposits from specific body areas to aid in contouring and shaping the body. People seek liposuction in order to deal with stubborn fat deposits, or aid in confidence and self-esteem besides.

This is a low-impact surgery, but one which nonetheless carries some significant risks – namely blood clots or deep vein thrombosis (DVT), nerve damage or numbness, and even infection or fat embolism – an event in which fat enters the bloodstream.