Is it worth it to die for beauty?

It is very common for us Plastic surgeons to receive patients requesting a part of their body to be identical to that of a personthey admire ( Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian). The hard part is to explain to these patients that plastic surgery has its limitations and that most of the time it is not possible to achieve the results they desire, because normally the patients that want these changes are those that look completely different and there are many features that cannot be modified (such as bone structure). The problem comes when the unrealistic expectations 

of the patients are not met. 

Patients, being unhappy with the diagnostic or the result of the surgery, search for someone that can provide a ¨solution¨ to their problem until they find someone without ethics (most of the time they are not even doctors) that offer them the figure they want at a very low cost by applying silicone injections or some other substance with an elaborate name, affirming they have performed countless procedures of this type and that it does not have any complications, brain washing their victims.

Here the fact that they say this does not represent any complication stands out, because any procedure, as small as it may seem, can be subject to a complication. Even injecting water inadequately can cause complications; Therefore, they are lying. 

There is no injectable silicone of a medical grade that can be used for aesthetic purposes. It is proved that any unauthorized substance may cause hardening of the infiltrated tissue, chronic pain, infections, ulcerations, migration of the silicone, autoimmune deseases, even cause of death. The most common substances these people inject are industrial silicone, vegetable oil, mineral oil, or even oil for cars.

The most tragic part of this situation is that due to the embarrassment of having fallen in the hands of delinquents, the victims keep their problem a secret and let it pass by, because they don´t want to be ridiculed, they may be afraid of the backlash or do not have the money to correct it. Meanwhile, the people responsible for this are out there getting rich by destroying lives. 

The plastic surgeon has the moral responsibility of educating and informing patients about this, to avoid them from ending up in the hands of fake plastic surgeons.

If someone has had a substance infiltrated by someone who is not accredited follow these instructions: 

1. Attend a consultation with a plastic surgeon to have an evaluation about the damages and determine the best approach. (Health comes first).

2. File a denounce, if more people do, the authorities can do something.

3. Become proactive and in some way help avoid other people become victims too.

Unfortunately this practice is never going to end, however, if people are well informed they less of them will have these treatments done. Remember wearing a white lab coat and call themselves a cosmetic surgeons, doesn't mean they've had the proper training to perform plastic surgery. When a practitioner is not qualified, the results can be deadly.