When we talk about plastic surgery, the questions we usually ask ourselves are mostly concerned with our financial and mental ability to deal with the procedure. However, sometimes there are more things to consider. For example: Does my 13-year-old girl really need a nose job? Or: Should I do something about my 4-year-old’s protruding ears? While doctors and surgeons can tell you all you need to know about the right age for the right procedure, there is still more to it than simple physical condition.
The right age
When you notice that there’s something odd about your child’s appearance, either a crooked nose or the protruding ears, you want to change it and make it right as soon as possible, for their own sake.
Nevertheless, a child’s anatomical development is the first thing you should have in mind when considering plastic surgery. Different features stop developing at different times, with the ears becoming stable at the age of four, the nose stops growing approximately at the age or 13 for the girls and 17 for the boys, while breasts may not be stable until 20.
These are the reasons why so many kids get their protruding ears tucked back before they go to Kindergarten, and so many teens undergo rhinoplasty.
The ‘right’ reasons
Anatomical development is one thing, but maturity and motivation are a whole new area. If your 14-year-old girl wants a smaller nose just because her sister has one, it’s a bad idea.
Nose jobs, boob jobs, botox, and lip augmentation are procedures which became incredibly popular in a previous couple of years when pouty lips and big breasts became beauty ideals.
The only way to get to the bottom of it is to talk to your child openly and find out whether they’re being bullied, feeling bad, or rejected because of the way they look.
Sometimes it is not about the society but about their self-image and self-acceptance. Some girls feel like boys because they have very small breasts, while others are embarrassed because their breasts are just way too big. Also, a crooked nose and a deviated septum could be potentially dangerous in the future, so rhinoplasty is a solution here.
The right choice
Once you have had the talk with your child and concluded they want the surgery for all the right reasons, you should find the right hospital. Talk to other people and browse the web for the one with the good reviews and the specialists you need. Make sure they answer all of your questions and have the right hospital supplies which you will need for the procedure and the post-op.
Plastic surgery is here to help; it has changed so many people’s lives for the better and made right things which people believed were irreparable.
Sadly, people still sometimes concern plastic surgery as a caprice of the rich and spoiled, and teenagers are dealing with far too much peer pressure to stop and think about their wishes and needs. Talk to your child openly; it will help you both make the right decision.