New Cosmetic Surgery

Austrian television and many other media recently reported about an unusual Miss Hungary contest: in the Miss Hungary Plastic Surgery contest only candidates who had previously undergone plastic surgery were eligible to take part. The title was finally won by a 22 year-old hostess whom surgeons had not only assisted with injections – a Botox treatment alone would not have sufficed for eligibility in the Miss contest.

According to the reports, however, the winners were not just the girls who had been “prettied up” with implants but also the plastic surgeons who had helped nature with their scalpels and silicone. One candidate had even undergone an operation to her toes in order to get apparently closer to the ideal of a “perfect body”. However, in the light of current trends and developments in the area of cosmetic medicine, this contest seems positively out of date.

There is no doubt that for some time the trend in cosmetic medicine has been going in the direction of restoration of natural beauty and health. In other words, a healthy body always radiates beauty too, and natural beauty can lead to a better sense of well-being.

The goal of New Cosmetic Surgery is increased beauty and health through methods that are as gentle and natural as possible. Breast augmentation through silicone implants and operative face-lifting can in many cases be replaced by treatment using the body’s own fat enriched with stem cells – the consequences are natural results without scars and foreign body implants. Stubborn fat deposits can be removed gently by means of specially developed and patented microcannulas; in many cases it is sufficient to set hormonal imbalance right by means of bio-identical hormones (Hormonal Regeneration®) to achieve cosmetic improvement.

On the other hand, anyone wanting to look particularly artificial can in future fall back on implants and plastic surgery. Whether the results will earn a prize outside of a Miss Plastic Surgery contest is questionable.

Heinrich, MD

In Austrian television recently the theme of the Club 2 programme was “Silicone and slimness mania”. Amongst others, Dr. Mang, Dr. Holle, Cordula Reyer, as well as a philosopher, a music manager and a media sociologist took part in the discussion. I thought the discussion philosophically very inspiring in part, but even the cosmetic surgeons did not call the child by its name: people create demand, demand creates supply, the media reports on supply offers and this creates further demand. Doctors who enjoy cosmetic work offer their services. Patients choose between the services and suppliers offered and in this way create trends in cosmetic surgery.

It was inappropriate and incorrect that Dr. Holle, plastic and reconstructive surgeon, placed the blame for botched up cosmetic surgery on cosmetic surgeons who are not Board certified Plastic Surgeons. It was actually plastic surgeons who disfigured Michael Jackson.

Cosmetic surgeons who have specialised in plastic and reconstructive surgery have learnt surgically sophisticated and complex reconstructive operations during their training, and naturally tend towards a generous use of the scalpel, i.e. to perform complex and invasive operations. This, of course, is often unavoidable in reconstructive surgery following accidents or in the removal of tumours, but it is mostly “too much” in cosmetic medicine – also because the rate of unnatural results and complications increases greatly with invasive surgery.

Apart from this it is not true, as Dr. Holle maintains, that plastic surgeons learn cosmetic operations during their hospital training. Not one of the plastic surgeons working in Austria today learnt cosmetic surgery during their specialist training. This is also just as true of plastic surgeons in other countries, as we doctors know. Or would you allow a surgeon in training in a training hospital to perform cosmetic surgery on you?

All doctors who want to work in cosmetic medicine have to learn this initially in additional courses. Whether a plastic surgeon (like Dr. Holle), an ENT doctor (like Dr. Mang) or a general practitioner (like me). It is shown later who possesses the talent for this and whom the patients trust.

Heinrich, MD