Public Service Announcement from Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center

Back to school wardrobes these days are beginning to include cosmetic surgery. Highly disturbing, the self-esteem lost due to the constant torment of bullying has driven children, particularly teens, to cosmetic surgery. 90,000 adolescents a year have cosmetic surgery. If you recall, in one instance, school officials negligent in their duty suggested a bullied teen have surgery. I say negligent because it would have been more appropriate to institute an anti-bullying program. There has been a lot of commentary around the Internet by surgeons and psychologists and I would like to comment as well.

Cosmetic surgery is becoming more and more popular for younger patients. For children under 18, much of the increase stems from avoiding bullying. For both female and male patients under age 35, the most common procedure performed was rhinoplasty (53% females; 70% males), with 20% of those procedures performed on patients under age 21. A survey of surgeons revealed that a majority of these children sought facial cosmetic surgery as a result of bullying (76%), rather than as a preventative measure (24%). This is how rampant bullying is.

At Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center usually otoplasty (ear surgery) and rhinoplasty (nose surgery) are performed on children under 18 after a thorough consultation with the child and his or her parents. One might also note that research published on PubMed about the best age to perform ear surgery has produced surprising evidence that earlier is better psychologically.

With social media becoming so popular in this digital age, we not only have to worry about physical bullying of our children on the school yard, but also cyber bullying. The organization StopCyberbullying is the first one in the US to take this issue head on. This organization defines it as “‘Cyberbullying’ is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor.” Lest you think that cyber bullying is not serious because physical harm is not possible, think again! “Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident” this site reports.

So if you have children, I urge you to get involved in one of the many anti-bullying organizations cropping up around the country. Arkansas has anti-bullying laws too that you can look into. At Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center, we can remove the symptom but do nothing to help the underlying problem. Consequently, the controversy rages on.

Dr. Branman

Call Melinda at the front desk to set up a consultation 501-227-0707