Growing up can be tough, especially when your kids reach their teenage years. With so much focus on physical appearance, it’s no wonder so many teens ask to have plastic surgery.
But when it comes to giving consent for your teen to have surgery, it’s your responsibility to know when their concerns are valid and when they’re simply growing pains.
Overview
Years ago, plastic surgery was only geared towards adults or a younger demographic with congenital anomalies. With the explosion of social media, particularly Instagram, teens are now bombarded with images of what they think they should look like. From lifted breasts to chiseled jawlines, teens now want to look like their favorite influencers.
Aside from peer pressure, there are cases where your teen may benefit from surgical or minimally invasive procedures. Teens are often teased about the appearance by peers, which leads to feelings of inadequacy and isolation, and ultimately, the desire for improvement.
Most Requested Procedures for Teens
While most teens request rhinoplasties to improve the appearance of their noses, there are other types of procedures that necessitate intervention. For example, it’s not uncommon for teen males to develop excessive breast tissue during their teen years. Gynecomastia, or the excessive development of breast tissue, happens when males go through puberty.
In most cases, once the male slims down and reaches pubertal maturity, any excessive tissue growth disappears. However, there are times when it doesn’t and intervention with liposuction is indicated.
Females who have excessively large breasts for their age may also be suitable candidates for surgery. Breast reduction surgery, or mammoplasty, reduces overall of size of their breasts and can also alleviate the painful symptoms that often accompany them such as neck and back pain.
Things to Consider
As with any type of surgical procedure, the decision to let your teen have cosmetic procedures performed should never be entered into lightly. Gifting your teen plastic surgery because they want to perfect their selfie isn’t reason enough to give the green light to proceed. Since teens are still growing and changing, it’s important to take the right approach when they ask for surgical changes. Dermal fillers work well to slim and reduce the appearance the nose without having to have surgery.
Parents and teens also need to know the difference when it comes to cosmetic versus reconstructive procedures. Wanting to have your nose done simply because you feel its too big to far different than needing reconstructive surgery to improve respiratory effort. Even as common as “nose jobs” are, they’re not without risk, including risks of anesthesia and unhappiness with the cosmetic result.
While there are plenty of valid reasons to allow your teen to have any type of procedure, it’s important that doctors, parents and teens have an open discussion about the pros and cons of having surgery performed.
If you or your teen is considering surgery, you need to work with one of the best plastic surgeon Tampa, like Dr. Farrior of Farrior Facial Plastic Surgery. Dr. Farrior offers private consultations to address your aesthetic concerns and together, decide the best course of action to help you reach your aesthetic goals