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Despite the pain she experienced following the surgery, Lauren has no regrets. She is very happy with her "new and improved" appearance and feels that her smaller nose looks better and is more in proportion to her face. As the "before" and "after" photos (see previous page) demonstrate, the changes to her appearance are subtle. "The shape of her nose is pretty much the same as before, but it is smaller and narrower," says LoVerme. Lauren hadn't told any of her friends that she was having cosmetic surgery. "I didn't want to call attention to myself; I just wanted to look better," she says. In September, on her first day as a high school student, Lauren and her friends happily greeted each other. While many of them said she looked good, nobody noticed that her nose was different.
"People are always saying 'Looks don't matter,' but the fact is, they do Ñ particularly if you're a teenager," says Robert Hendren, DO, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Hendren, who treats many patients with poor body image, says more than two-thirds of teenage girls are not satisfied with their weight. During adolescence, much of a child's identity is being formed, explains Hendren. Young people become preoccupied with being attractive and appealing to others, particularly in early adolescence. "At first, they base their view of themselves on their external qualities Ñ primarily their looks," he says. "As they grow older, the focus shifts to their internal qualities." When a teen is not able to make this shift, it can indicate that there is a problem, says Hendren. "An obsession with physical appearance may indicate depression or other disorders," he explains. "These need to be ruled out before any cosmetic surgery is done." For this reason, Hendren warns against agreeing on cosmetic surgery before a teenager is at least in middle adolescence."By then, they are more likely to have consolidated their concept of themselves," he says. Plastic surgeon Paul LoVerme agrees. "When I see a patient who is too young for a procedure, I tell them to think about it some more and come back," he says. Parents can help teens form their views of what is attractive by encouraging them to talk about what they believe, not what their friends think or what they hear or see in the media. States Hendren: "In time, you hope that they will come to see physical appearance as one part of themselves, not all of themselves." | |
fter several hours of recuperation, Lauren went home, her nose splinted and bandaged. She had moderate swelling and pain, which intensified the following day. "My eyes were black and blue, and my nose and mouth were swollen," she recalls. "But a week later, I felt much better. And a few weeks after that, I was almost back to normal."
s there anything about your appearance you'd like to change? Most people, when asked this
question, would say yes. Many would like to be thinner. Some might wish for a smaller nose, bigger (or smaller) breasts, or clearer skin. But how many of those people would opt for surgery to improve their looks?