We only need to turn to Hollywood to see a few examples of how plastic surgery can drastically change someone’s appearance and not always for the better.
It’s not hard to understand why some people want to use plastic surgery to improve their looks but for others, the reasons are a little less clear. According to Dr Kien Ha, people have a lot of different reasons when they approach a surgeon and it is important to take those into consideration as well.
It’s safe to assume that there will be social payoffs if your surgery goes smoothly. Many plastic surgery patients notice that people are friendlier and suddenly it’s not as difficult to get that pay raise.
On the other side of the spectrum, some people choose to undergo plastic surgery to reap a different kind of reward such as greater self-esteem and happiness, but is it truly possible for clinics such as https://drandresafvat.com.au to make a difference in this way?
Is Attractiveness Linked to Happiness?
So are attractive people usually happier? According to a study by psychologists E. Diener, B. Wolsic and F. Fujita, there isn’t a definitive direct link between happiness and physical attractiveness. This means that undergoing plastic surgery for psychological reasons alone is not necessarily going to give you the results you’re hoping for.
The study did also indicate that a patient’s self-perceptions of attractiveness are, in fact, related to happiness, which means it is still possible.
So, how does this make sense?
It’s important to remember that it’s easy to be biased about your level of attractiveness, meaning it’s not difficult to feel more or less attractive than others. What matters is the extent to which those feelings diverge from reality.
How Plastic Surgery Affects Emotional Wellbeing
Another study that was published on the Sage Journals website showed that plastic surgery has the ability to improve emotional wellbeing by reducing anxiety, depression and social phobias.
A second study confirmed these findings but also pointed out that expectations played a leading role in how emotionally happy a patient was after their procedure. If you’re going to approach surgery with unrealistic expectations, naturally, you are going to end up with unsatisfactory results.
Another interesting takeaway from this study is that specific types of procedures were also linked to different degrees of psychological benefits. The study showed that breast augmentation and reduction produced the most positive emotional outcomes such as greater self-esteem. Procedures such as rhinoplasty and facelifts had a more mixed bag of reactions. A final interesting point from this study is that males tend to end up feeling more dissatisfied after plastic surgery than women.
While there is no concrete proof that plastic surgery will definitely improve your wellbeing, there is definitely a fair amount of favourable evidence that indicates it does, at least for a period of time anyway. It also reminds us of the importance of setting realistic expectations and to make sure that we are deciding to undergo surgery for the right reasons.
Plastic surgery can be life changing in more ways than one and it all starts with finding the right surgeon to guide you through this journey.
