Recently I read the story about Heidi Montag and her obsession with plastic surgery.  Looking at the before and after pictures, it was difficult to see why someone as beautiful as she was before the surgery, wanted to have plastic surgery at all.  Did she really have Body Dysmorphic Disorder; a preoccupation with an aspect of one’s appearance real or imagined?
 
According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery statistics from 2008, the top procedures for the 18 year old and under age group were rhinoplasty and laser hair removal (160,283 procedures collectively).  For the 19-34 year old age group; breast augmentation and laser hair removal were the most common (2.2 million procedures collectively).  Research has shown that if a BDD patient has surgery, their symptoms don’t disappear.

I asked my 3 daughters, who are 11, 16, and 21 years of age, what they thought about aesthetic surgery in young people.  While the 2 older ones extolled the virtues of laser hair removal over shaving; they told me that some of their class mates were given plastic surgery for birthday and graduation presents.  The 3 of them all agreed that if you aren’t happy with who you are inside, you will never be happy with who you are on the outside.

What do you think about young people and aesthetic surgery?   As nurses, how can we help identify people with BDD and get them the help they need? 

Posted by Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC