Who is addicted to plastic surgery

Continue Learning about Cosmetic Surgery What are the risks of neck liposuction surgery? Arthur W. Perry, MD. As with any surgery, there is a risk of infection after neck liposuction surgery. The risk is ve What should I consider while deciding the type of incisions for implant?

The most important decision when deciding the incision site for your implant, has to do with the saf What increases the risk for bleeding after cosmetic surgery? Many factors increase the chance of bleeding after cosmetic surgery. The natural progression of aging can often lead one to have multiple cosmetic procedures.

For example, a woman may have a breast augmentation in her 20s, a tummy tuck in her 40s and a facelift in her 60s. Revisions and replacements can also necessitate multiple surgeries. Remember that the goal with plastic surgery should always be improvement rather than perfection. Montag has countered some of her critics by saying she is not addicted to plastic surgery. The answer is not so black-and-white, experts say.

While Montag does have a point, that multiple plastic surgeries may not be considered an addiction in the classic sense , the behavior does have some components of addiction.

Some experts believe addiction is marked by three fundamental symptoms: repeated involvement in an activity; an act brought on by cravings ; and one done despite negative consequences, said Tom Horvath, a psychologist who operates an addiction treatment center in La Jolla, Calif.

A classic example would be smoking, Horvath said: a habit users continue to engage in, deriving pleasure from their cigarettes, even in the face of multiple health problems strongly tied to the action.

While having plastic surgery isn't exactly like smoking, there are some parallels, and in certain situations, the behavior could be thought of as a kind of addiction, Horvath said.

Indeed, cosmetic surgery can have negative outcomes, including infections, going into debt after paying the surgery's high price-tag, and being socially ostracized, Horvath added. In rare cases, people die during or after procedures. However, the problem with thinking of plastic surgery as a true addiction is that you can't get a procedure done very frequently, as is the case with lighting up a cigarette.

However, Then believes that people can absolutely become addicted to plastic surgery. While some people may tweak one body part and be satisfied, others never seem satiated. How can you tell? And the underlying psychologic problem has a name: body dysmorphic disorder , or BDD, a condition that can lead to a cosmetic surgery addiction.

A person with BDD may be preoccupied with a slight, or even an imagined, defect, usually in a facial feature. In fact, one study suggests that as many as one-third of nose-job patients have symptoms of BDD. People with BDD also have unusually high suicide attempt rates. Patients with this disorder are unlikely to be satisfied with the results of cosmetic surgery, and some people have even attempted to take out their frustration on their plastic surgeon.