UK Docs Push Bogus Plastic Surgeries

We’ve all heard about the shifty car repairman who takes advantage of the unwitting customer. You come in with a busted fan belt and suddenly the mechanic “finds” all kinds of things wrong with your car – all of which he can put right for a suitable fee, plus parts.  It’s no fun getting ripped off by a mechanic or by a doctor. Yet in a recent investigation in the UK, a researcher pretending he wanted a nose job was repeatedly offered unnecessary surgery by 80 percent of the cosmetic surgery clinics he visited.

Another researcher who visited 11 clinics seeking breast implants and liposuction was given incorrect information about her “case” and, even offered implants that had been withdrawn from the market!

Which? Magazine, the UK publication that backed the recent investigation, did so in an effort to uncover how many of the 65,000 to 75,000 cosmetic surgery operations carried out each year in the UK are legitimately necessary.

Prior to his surgery search, the magazine’s investigative reporter was assessed by an experienced plastic surgeon who professionally determined that the reporter’s nose was not in need of cosmetic surgery.

Upon presenting at the surgical practices, however, the reporter’s nose suddenly became “uneven”, “pointed”, or otherwise unsightly – and in need of a rhinoplasty. The risks were explained as “minimal”, even though cosmetic rhinoplasty is a serious surgical procedure with a significant risk of complications.

The female reporter received similar misinformation intended to sell her on the idea of breast enhancement surgery, although her breasts were deemed to be in no need of such surgery prior to the investigation.

A new system of regulation for private cosmetic surgeons is being phased in across the UK to weed out the charlatans in the cosmetic surgery industry — but no system is foolproof, and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons says the public is still at risk. Sadly, as with all commercial transactions, the rule of thumb when seeking out cosmetic surgery is caveat emptor.

Of course, few cosmetic surgeries are actually medically necessary – as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.