Liposuction Among Plastic Surgeries Trends for Teens

Plastic surgery has been perfected over that last few decades so much so that more and more teens and younger adults are turning to many procedures in an effort to contour the body and boost self-esteem. Several plastic surgery procedures host a high percentage of teens, and some surgeries claim teens as half of the cliental. Among these surgeries are rhinoplasty, otoplasty, breast reductions, and liposuction.

It has long been known that teenagers compose a large customer base for rhinoplasty surgeries. This surgery deemed “a nose job” is one that is often performed on a teen as soon as his or her doctor will approve it. Rhinoplasty is not recommended for girls until the age of seventeen to eighteen and for boys at around the age of fifteen, as a patient must be finished growing before the procedure will be permanently effective. Additionally, a common time for a teen to undergo the operation is during the summer between high school and the first year of college.

Ear pinning, or otoplasty, is a procedure that is performed on children of all ages. Children as young as four years old have had the operation. It is usually clearly a cosmetic decision made as a preventative measure by parents who fear ridicule and bullying for their children, especially boys who are less able to hide ears with long hair.

The aforementioned nose job and ear pinning procedures have long been accepted as plastic surgeries that are physically and emotionally beneficial for children and teens, but things like breast operations and liposuction are becoming quite mainstream for the much younger patient. Because obesity has been researched so thoroughly in recent times and it is now recognized as a disease rather than a serious of bad choices, it has become less taboo for younger patients and even teens to seek liposuction with the support of their parents and the guidance of their physicians.

If the child is carrying weight as a result of a metabolic imbalance, then diet and exercise, especially for a child who is still growing, are not going to cure the disease alone. It is thought that liposuction can jump-start the metabolism allowing the child to both, immediately begin a more active lifestyle and to see results in dietary changes more quickly. This jumpstart could be the positive break that a child needs to start taking and accepting healthier life choices.

Liposuction also is often used in conjunction with breast reduction for gynecomastia, a condition that causes breasts to grow in young boys, but beyond obesity issues and gynecomastia, this procedure is still a growing trend among young adults and teens around the age of seventeen or eighteen, and it is possible to find a plastic surgeon who is comfortable working with patients of this age. A consultation with a surgeon sometimes completed in conjunction with a psychological evaluation of the young patient is imperative in determining if the teen or young adult has the mental/emotional capacity and the responsibility to successfully deal with the repercussions of such surgeries.