It is not uncommon for people to think that someone who undergoes a facelift, nose job or eyelid surgery is simply being vain, neurotic or superficial. However, those opinions are usually short-sighted and wrong.
Certainly, there are people who are unrealistically obsessed with his/her appearance, and it is the job of a facial plastic surgeon to help make sure the patients they accept for treatment are realistic about needs and expectations. The truth is though that most people seeking facial aesthetic surgery just want to be normal; they want to feel accepted and don’t want to be self-conscious because of some unsightly feature they were born with or developed with age or injury.
While it is easy for someone with a pretty face to be critical about someone who has had a nose job, face lift or eyelid surgery, he/she might hold a different opinion if he/she were the person with the large nose, sagging jowles/neck, or puffy eyelids.
I remember sitting at a fund raising dinner of about a 1,000 guests some years ago and listening to the guest speaker and well known TV commentator go on a tirade about how a person was being vain and selfish when considering cosmetic surgery. As a facial plastic surgeon I was disappointed in his statements. This guy was insensitive to just how insecure and self conscious a person can be. Some of these patients are suffering to a degree few people can understand.
Ironically, two years later I saw this commentator on one of the evening political shows. As I listened to him I noticed that the camera lighting was shining directly through his forehead “hair”. Well guess what, his hair transplant (and a bad one by not having had a good micro graft job) was plainly visible! How about that! It was OK for him to condemn other people for having cosmetic surgery, but this type of elective surgery was apparently OK for him. Kind of hypocritical, to say the least. Obviously he felt an insecurity and need to feel better about himself. Cosmetic surgery can help people feel better about themselves if done for the right reasons.
The Langsdon Clinic screens each patient in an attempt to make sure they have the right motivations and a healthy attitude before we agree to carry out facial plastic surgery. You can find more information regarding a realistic approach and expectations regarding cosmetic surgery at https://www.drlangsdon.com/