Heidi Montag claims plastic surgery botched

Strangely enough, I was thinking about Heidi Montag today.  I had been pondering the prospect of fillers in my face and how important it is to do it properly.  She often comes to mind as someone who I thought looked much prettier before she had plastic surgery.  Her breasts look ridiculous but her face bothers me more.  She was an attractive girl before, but after the surgery just ended up with a bland look-the same as all the other cookie cutter Hollywood Hills types.

There's nothing too much that's wrong in isolation.  Her nose is a good nose.  Her chin is a good chin.  Her lips are a bit big, but not terrible.  It's the face as a whole that doesn't really work for me.  She looks plastic.

Anyway, the latest is that she's gone to the magazines saying that she has awful scars from surgery and that she wasn't fully informed of all the risks before the procedures.

There's more here on the Daily Mail website.

While I feel a little sorry for her, it's hard to know who is mostly to blame here.  She says surgeons act as if they're giving out cookies.  Maybe some are a little over confident and minimise risks...but I think that is true of many (if not most) surgeons-not just cosmetic surgeons.  A certain amount of ego helps to get ahead and, more importantly, a degree of confidence is necessary to undertake any procedures.  Would you really want to have someone who is terrified and shaking to be close to you with a scalpel?  If every surgeon went through every single potential complication that possibly could happen (remember, it always includes death) and gave each the same emphasis, then nobody would every have an operation.

One of her biggest complaints seems to be bad scars.  I can only see the scar under her chin in those photos.  It's not a great one, to be fair.  However, there's sometimes only so much the surgeon can do.  They can do their best to do neat sutures but individual factors come into play.  Some people have skin that develops keloid scars or a less severe type-hypertrophic scars.  Wound infections or traction forces (e.g. from swelling or movement) can lead to poor healing with wider or irregular scars.  It's a risk of any procedure.

I'm not sure what was said to her during her consent.  I have absolutely no idea what she believed going into it, but as patients we can't really claim ignorance any longer.  NO procedure is without at least some risk.  Yes, the person doing it should tell us what to expect but we have an obligation too.  We need to do the research and make sure that the potential benefits outweigh the risks.

There's no such thing as a free lunch; and there's no procedure without risk.

Braving Botox

If you read any magazine/newspaper/website or watch Desperate Housewives on even an occasional basis, it seems like Botox is everywhere and on a par with brushing your teeth as part of a grooming routine.  We've all heard of Botox parties and even some scary stories of people buying it from Ebay-one of whom was injecting her teenage daughter: scary!  There are also many many examples of bad Botox-like most of the cast of Desperate Housewives, Lisa Rinna, Nicole Kidman...and that cat woman, Jocelyn Wildenstein:

OK, granted, she had a LOT of surgery to look that way...but she's definitely a cautionary tale.

Maybe I think of things a little differently being Irish.  I know many people at home do get Botox but it's definitely not as open as it is here and most wouldn't admit to it.  It is kind of seen as vanity.  And an expensive vanity!

I've been considering it for years though-initially for a deep crease in my forehead, but that seems pretty static.  What has bothered me more over the past year though are my frown lines.  They're also known as glabellar lines or 11s.  I feel like they appeared overnight!   One morning I looked in the mirror and there they were.  I tried various lotions/potions/scrubs.  I must have been frowning a lot because they got worse if anything and sometimes I even woke with a frown on my face.  The lines gave me a frowny and perpetually perplexed expression.  It went beyond looking my age (or older) and made me look grumpy and unapproachable!

I read and I pondered.  I gave it a year of watching them get worse before deciding to go ahead and try it all at least once.

Before pics (frowning):

Cringe-worthy.  Particularly my pores.  Yikes!  They may have to be addressed.  Gives some idea of my frown though.