Cosmetic Surgery Common for Children in UAE
Plastic surgery, including cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries, is gaining popularity around the world, despite many debates. But one of the hottest topics for several years now has been children’s plastic surgery and its application in the UAE. According to doctors, the number of children who undergo cosmetic surgery in Dubai jump during the summer vacation.
According to Dr. Luiz Toledo at the Medical Arts Clinic in Jumeirah, around 30 percent of the bookings for plastic surgeries for the next month are for children. One of the most common procedures appears to be the ear reshaping. And if this one is usually done for simply aesthetic reasons, parents usually decide on liposuction for medical reasons only. The youngest liposuction patients so far have been 14-year-old boys struggling with severe obesity. And while the most advisable way to lose weight is naturally, by dieting and exercise, it becomes very difficult for severely obese kids. But the question remains, should children and teenagers undergo cosmetic surgery?
Specialists say, most parents agree to a cosmetic procedure in order to save their children the inevitable bullying in school which often leads to serious psychological problems. If your child has big ears or too many pounds and suffers daily teasing and harassment, you will look for the best solution to help them. Cases of noticeable birth anomalies are usually even worse and the parents themselves have concerns how the child is going to be accepted outside the family. So, often the initiative tends to originate from the parents themselves. On the other hand, specialists say that the decision about surgically fixing someone’s appearance is far more complicated than making the decision to treat asthma, for example. The reason for that is the fact that changing your face is usually directly linked to human interaction and social acceptance, both crucial to our life. So, is it right for children to become victims of prejudice, or should we teach them to accept who they are?
According to some doctors, the decision to change our kid’s face qualifies as admitting “You should not look like this”, or “You need to be fixed”, which practically makes us the bullies. Instead, parents should learn to accept their children as they are, with all their differences and “imperfections”. Similarly, they need to teach them the true values of being a good, confident and worthy person, rather than just being a good-looking man or woman. However, there will be always parents who will think their children have to be perfect and of course, there will be always surgeons who will “fix” kid’s faces. The question is, is it right, and wouldn’t the change in appearance harm our child more than the teasing in school?
