Cosmetic Plastic Surgery—The Basics
M. Sandra Wood in Internet Guide to Cosmetic Surgery for Women, 2013
Plastic surgery is the medical specialty involved with changing a person’s appearance via surgery. Although people tend to think of plastic surgery in terms of its cosmetic use, in reality, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the majority of surgeries are reconstructive in nature. Cosmetic surgery is generally defined as surgery done for the purpose of improving appearance, i.e., it is plastic surgery for aesthetic purposes, while reconstructive surgery is done to correct or repair a defect, for example to correct a birth defect or repair an injury. The same procedure may be used either cosmetically or for reconstruction, and frequently the purpose of the surgery determines whether it is covered by health insurance. Most cosmetic procedures are not covered by insurance, although it’s always good to check with your health insurance company.
Cosmetic procedures
Melanie Latham, Jean V. McHale in The Regulation of Cosmetic Procedures, 2020
We use the more widely utilized term in clinical practice of ‘cosmetic surgery’ rather than ‘aesthetic surgery’ throughout the book.15 Cosmetic surgery is a procedure that is rarely available to National Health Service (NHS) patients in England as it is considered non-therapeutic and is something that has to be paid for privately.16 As with plastic surgery, however, cosmetic surgery also involves invasive treatment, which breaks the skin, requires anaesthesia and possibly blood transfusions. Such procedures include surgery on the: breast (reduction, augmentation, lift, insertion of implants); face (‘lifting’ of the face or brow, nose ‘rhinoplasty’, eyelid blepharoplasty, chin or cheek implants); abdomen (liposuction, ‘tummy tuck’); buttocks and legs (liposuction). In contrast to plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery is typically carried out as a response to a consumer’s request for the aesthetic enhancement of his or her body by a surgeon and is non-therapeutic in that sense.17 However, the idea that cosmetic procedures can also sometimes answer a clinical need, by improving psychological ‘well-being’, has gained ground in recent years.18
Introduction to the Phenomenon of “Medical Tourism”
Frederick J. DeMicco, Shirley Weis in Medical Tourism and Wellness, 2017
However, when the traveler is seeking more serious medical attention, the most common emerging model is that of a hotel as a facility serving the medical tourist briefly before medical treatment, and longer during the convalescence process prior to returning home. In essence, the hotel is an “aftercare” facility, as the guest moves from medical facilities while his or her strength returns, healing occurs, and family members supplement the medical travel experience with tourism and relaxation. This recovery period may range from a few days for minor and cosmetic surgery to a couple of weeks or more in the case of major surgery. Serving such patient/guests is relatively new ground for many properties, and it raises several new considerations.
Facial Feminization Surgery: The Ethics of Gatekeeping in Transgender Health
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2018
In the policies of the house of delegates of the American Medical Association, the definition of cosmetic surgery is that of “surgery performed to reshape normal structures of the body to improve the patient’s appearance and self-esteem” (American Medical Association Policies of House of Delegates 1989). However, a medically necessary surgery “is performed on an abnormal structure of the body caused by congenital defects, developmental abnormalities, trauma, infection, tumors, or disease and is generally performed to improve the function but may also be done to approximate normal appearance.” We argue that if one considers this treatment logic for gender dysphoria, FFS must be categorized as a medical necessity. While cosmetic surgery is intended to produce beauty, FFS is undertaken to produce femaleness. Like GRS, FFS is intended to transform the patient’s gender from male to female. FFS is not driven by a desire to achieve cosmetic improvement; it is driven by a desire to obtain a body that enables one to engage and function in society.
Cosmetic Procedures and Mental Health: A Double-Edged Sword?
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2020
Michelle Cleary, Toby Raeburn, Catherine Hungerford
In the twenty-first century, many of the changes that are made by people to improve their appearance are less temporary than in past times. As already noted, cosmetic procedures can be both invasive and non-invasive, with the former achieving permanent changes to the body. Specifically, invasive cosmetic surgery has been defined as any procedure “where the primary intention is to achieve what the patient perceives to be a more desirable appearance and where the procedure involves changes to bodily features that have a normal appearance on presentation to the doctor” (Dean et al., 2018, p. 95). Importantly, this differs to surgery undertaken with the intent to achieve a normal appearance in cases where there are “congenital defects, developmental abnormalities, trauma, infection, tumours or disease” that does not meet the above cosmetic surgery definition (Dean et al., 2018, p. 95).
Men’s Sexual Interest in Feminine Trans Individuals across Cultures
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2022
Lanna J. Petterson, Paul L. Vasey
Some feminine trans individuals augment their feminine appearance through the use of exogenous hormones, fillers (e.g., injectable silicone), and surgical procedures (Boellstorff, 2004; Grant et al., 2011; Howe et al., 2008; James et al., 2016; Kulick, 1997; Meyerowitz, 2002; Milan, 2017; Prieur, 1994; Puckett et al., 2018; Scheim & Bauer, 2015; Stief, 2017). Feminizing surgeries can include breast, hip, and buttocks augmentation, facial plastic surgery, and genital reconstruction. A significant number of feminine trans individuals do not undergo any of these procedures but augment their feminine appearance in nonpermanent ways (e.g., makeup). Others modify their bodies using hormones, but not surgery (e.g., Grant et al., 2011; James et al., 2016; Kulick, 1997; Prieur, 1994; Scheim & Bauer, 2015; Stief, 2017). Feminine trans individuals who undergo vaginoplasties appear to be in the minority (e.g., James et al., 2016; Kailas et al., 2017; Kulick, 1997; Prieur, 1994; Puckett et al., 2018; Scheim & Bauer, 2015; Stief, 2017; Ten Brummelhuis, 1999).2For some feminine trans individuals, the cost of genital reconstructive surgery may be prohibitive; others may feel that the surgical outcomes are sub-optimal; still others may elect not to undergo these procedures because they do not feel that having a penis is inconsistent with a feminine gender identity.
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