Cheap Plastic Surgery, Anyone?
We are very adept at haggling
over price tags. Some of us have the reputation of always bargaining for the
lowest possible figure but, at the same time, are very choosy! I can vividly
recall walking into a specialty store and, finding the article that I
wanted, I asked the well-dressed saleslady for the cheaper version. The poor
woman stared at me wide-eyed and exclaimed, "You mean, less expensive!"
In developing countries labor
undoubtedly comes at a modest price. Consequently, we have become a haven
for manufacturers from the western world. They have put up their factories
on our shores. Well, not until China grabbed world domination in this field,
with their cut-rate labor costs! Now the issue with low-priced services is
that inevitably the quality of work becomes compromised. The more "less
expensive" it becomes, the cheaper it gets, literally speaking. Thus, there
is so much wisdom in the Western belief that less expensive does not
necessarily mean cheaper.
The same trend follows in the
realm of cosmetic surgery. Europeans and Americans go for their nips and
tucks in South America and Asia. Thailand especially is a very popular
destination. It has the advantage of having a flourishing tourism industry
compared to that of the Philippines; nevertheless, their surgeons are not
necessarily more competent than ours. Just think about it: a nose job would
cost around three to five thousand dollars ($3000-5000) in the United
States; in the Philippines it would be about 60-80% less that amount! And
the fee frequently goes even lower to cater to the locals. But would
something at steal-price rate not also mean mediocre quality product or
outcome? Only recently, a documentary film on cable TV featured an American
lady quite distraught after having undergone cosmetic surgery somewhere in
Mexico. Her breast augmentation had resulted in unsightly anatomic
distortions and skin loss. She had to submit herself to another
plastic-reconstructive procedure on her return to the United States. Of
course, she was not the same person again. She felt mangled and deformed
after her unfortunate experience. The scars would not only be physical but
also emotional. (Sometimes you wonder which one is worse). This woman's case
is an example of a cosmetic surgery that was inexpensive and which,
subsequently, gave shoddy results. On what happened at the operating table,
we can only speculate. Suffice to say that any form of surgery has its
inherent risks and possible complications. On top of that, if the cosmetic
surgery comes at a bargain price, the doctor tends to take shortcuts to save
on cost often compromising safety protocols. When it is necessary to do the
operation in the hospital and not just in the physician's office, the added
expense on hospital fees is actually an investment on safety. The same is
true when you have to pay extra for an anesthesiologist. While it is a fact
that some cosmetic procedures are done under local anesthesia administered
by the surgeon himself, other operations require the expertise of an
anesthesiologist. Otherwise, insisting on cosmetic surgery that costs next
to nothing would be synonymous to a trade-off for the honest-to-goodness
procedure. A nose job, for instance, would simply become standard insertion
of the silicon implant without attention to the nasal tip. Or instead of
using a high quality silicon gel implant for breast augmentation, they
resort to the use of the cheaper low grade breast implants often without the
knowledge of the patient. The list can go on.
Inexpensive
surgery may not necessarily mean an unsafe and sub-standard operation. When
deciding on a cosmetic procedure, hunt for a competent Plastic Surgeon. And
before you haggle on his professional fee, think again! If you were going
skydiving, you would not want to equip yourself with some bargained
parachute, would you? |