"Dangers of plastic surgery" -essays (FIN)

As part of an English course, our upper secondary students familiarized themselves with the topic of plastic and cosmetic surgery. They learned to know English vocabulary related to the topic, they talked about their own perceptions and opinions on the concept of cosmetic surgery and watched a video of cosmetic surgeries gone wrong. After this, they wrote reflective English essays on the topic of "Dangers of plastic surgery" where they summarized their own ideas related to the topic at hand. Here you can find some of the best pieces of work.

The dangers of plastic surgery        

                                                     

The risks related to plastic and cosmetic surgery are horrible. There are always risks when you decide to go under the knife although advertisements say something else. If something goes wrong, results could be irreversible. The most common risks related to plastic surgery are organ and nerve damages, chronic pain, scarring and infections. There is also the risk of death. And if the first operation didn’t go as planned, a surgeon has to fix it and you have to go under the knife again.

I have thought why people want to have ‘work done’ despite those dangerous risks. I guess people aren’t satisfied with their bodies and they think cosmetic surgery is the easiest way to be happier. Nowadays pressures to look beautiful are huge. Everywhere in media you can see ideal bodies which are young and thin. People compare themselves with celebrities who are successfully went under the knife. For me it’s easier to understand medical reasons, for example if somebody wants to repair her face that burned in a fire and have skin transplant, than cosmetic surgery for aesthetic reasons.

I have never considered having cosmetic surgery. I want to be satisfied with my appearance without operations in the future too. Anyway, if someone else wants to go under the knife, I don’t care, because it’s everyone’s own business. Everyone has their reasons and I appreciate their opinions.

To my mind, there are better ways to tackle the body image issues than surgical procedures. I think people should learn to accept themselves just as they are. People should also be awarer of the risks related to plastic surgery. Lifestyle changes are always better choice than liposuction. And as young people grow up long and are insecure of their bodies at that time, there should be an age limit to having cosmetic surgery.

There are opinions related to this subject as many as people and these were just mine.

- Annika

The Dangers of Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery really isn’t worth it. Just the risks alone are enough for me to never even consider getting work done on myself. The people that want plastic surgery are often rich and famous and people that are very active in media. The fact that these people are the ones getting it done makes it part of the beauty ideal. Ordinary people are seeing already beautiful people getting botox and breast augmentation surgery and decide getting it themselves. But the problem with that is that normal people don’t have the money to get as good results as all these celebrities and the risks involved with getting plastic surgery from a cheap place are just scary. 

For example getting liposuction done can have serious complications. After the surgery the fat might not form in the right places and the spot of the liposuction will look deformed. Some might get very bad scarring and others may get very bad infections. Every surgery also has the risk of death. 

In my opinion plastic surgery should become more of a taboo. The dangers of it should be more known and people should be scared of it. The media should advertise being healthy and drive forward a more of a natural beauty standard. Because in the end this plastic surgery boom is caused by celebrities and impossible beauty standards.

- Eetu

The dangers of plastic surgery

Youtube is filled with videos that show us the results of plastic surgery with titles like ‘’plastic surgery gone horribly wrong’’ and ‘’celebrities before and after plastic surgery’’. So why do people still go and have some work done on themselves when clearly the results can be terrible? 

Plastic surgery is very common among celebrities. The reason for that is probably the pressure that they have. Every day we see magazines which are filled with titles like ‘’Angelina Johnson has cellulite!’’, ‘’Brad Pitt is getting fat’’ and so on. Celebrities are filmed all the time and that puts a great pressure on them to look good on every waking moment, which is why many of them have turned to plastic surgery. There are also other reasons for them to use plastic surgery such as aging, and just simply wanting to be more beautiful and desirable. For example Kylie Jenner, who is the youngest Kardashian-Jenner, has hit the headlines a couple times now. She is young and beautiful but still she went to get lip fillers and apparently a boobjob. 

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with getting a surgery done if you have some little insecurities which can’t be dealt with any other way. People are always telling us that we need to accept ourselves just as we are, and there is nothing wrong with that either if you can do it and it is enough for you, but if we have one little thing that make us feel bad or insecure why not get rid of it? 

There are numerous ways to change your appearance. For example: losing weight or gaining weight, getting fit or muscular, using makeup, changing your wardrobe, getting your hair done or cut and so on. I think that if we can change something naturally then that is the best option. Getting surgery should not be the first choice it should be the last one. And never ever do anything that is not good for your health. If you try to get fit don’t try to do it with throwing up everything you eat, do it with healthy food and exercise. 

- Vilma

The dangers of plastic surgery

I have sometimes wondered if I could go under the knife. It´s a thing that should be considered very carefully and also one should think about reasons of dissection. Many people fantasize that after they get work done they are going to be happy and beautiful with no doubt but that´s not true. An operation can enhance one feature or cheer up but one little rhinoplasty doesn´t fix an ugly face or one, two or even twenty operation can´t give purpose to live. Usually a problem is in person´s head, not in her or his appearance.

Still I don´t truly believe that everyone should just deal with their genes whatever they are. It´s important to accept yourself with all humane imperfections but it doesn´t mean you can´t do anything to make you feel better with yourself. Everyone has right to do what they want with their body. If something is not good, it´s okay to change it. The question is what is the price of it.

An operation is always a risk. Even a relatively easy and safe medical procedure can cause complications. Cosmetic surgeon in not any different. An surgical wound can inflame, a surgeon can damage organs by accident or the operation can go wrong for dozens of reasons and a result is a defect in appearance, pain or even a death. All the same there is lots of people who want to enhance themselves by dissection.

Most people values an appearance and during the last decades the public pressure to look good is just increased. At the same time surgical operation have become easier to have and they are possible to almost everyone. Also aesthetic appeal is not always a reason to go under the knife. For example many people fix their vision with laser and that is usually counted in cosmetic surgery. People always try to find an easy way to fulfill their dreams. Sometimes desire to accomplish one´s ideal self feels more important than risks but many people simply don´t know about risks and doctor´s don´t always give enough information.

People, who know the risks, can still want to go to an operation. One of the problems is that cosmetic surgery can enhance quality of life. Serious injuries and death cases are unusual and nobody thinks that something bad is going to happen to him or her. It depends on a surgeon´s skills and quality of insruments but also on luck, if the operation is success or not. Every doctor makes malpractices but usually the risk is taken because somebody´s life and health are in danger. This is not valid in cosmetic surgery. The surgeon are not usually so trained to do cosmetic operations because the education of plastic surgeon doesn´t give qualification to do cosmetic surgery. They must do their training with their own money and usually abroad. Sometimes money is more important than client´s safety.

There is only a few people who are completely pleased with their looks. Surgery should not be the first option when it comes to appearance. Personally, I think that I will never want to ´get work done´but I understand people who do.  They have right to do so. I just hope they know what they are doing.

- Venla

The dangers of plastic surgery

Cosmetic surgery is one of the growing trends of our time. People want to enhance their appearance to get similar looks with models and celebrities. We compare ourselves a way too much to other people, especially to famous people and their photoshopped pictures. The truth is that we can’t all look the same and it’s useless to think that you aren’t good the way you are: it just makes you feel bad.

Obviously there are other reasons to get the surgery done than only the desire to look similar with celebrities. People want to improve their self-esteem by changing parts in their bodies that they aren’t happy with. Some people might seek help from plastic surgery in losing weight by taking the liposuction done. One common reason is also the desire to look young and beautiful longer. Cosmetic surgery can also be reconstructive too, for example after an accident.

There are many risks in cosmetic surgery. Few very common risks are hematomas, nerve damage, infections, scarring and so on. One quite serious risk is also disappointment to the results. Often people who go under the knife expect a way too much from the surgery and get upset afterwards, when the results aren’t what they awaited. Dissatisfaction with the results can cause some level of depression and it can also lead in taking more and more surgeries to get exactly what you want. Also the response from others can cause stress, especially if the reception isn’t so positive.

I personally have never even thought about having any kind of surgery done, at least not in “I want to look prettier”-way. If I for example would get in an accident where my face gets burnt or other way damaged, I’d take reconstructive surgery to fix it. Even I’m not perfectly satisfied with my appearance, I don’t feel like I have to look any different from what I am.

- Elina