The Mental Health Benefits of Plastic Surgery Procedures

Fixing something on the outside can help so many things on the inside.

Our customers come to us with something about their appearance that they want to fix. But that physical change helps to empower them to find emotional peace in their personal and professional lives.

What could it mean for you? Contact Toronto Plastic Surgeons today to see what your future could look like. Or, keep reading to learn some of the mental health benefits that our patients experience.

Helping Longstanding Insecurities

When someone makes the decision to contact a plastic surgeon, they’re not doing so on a whim. They have likely been mulling the idea around for a few years, or even decades.

Everyone has some part of their body that they wish they could change. Even the super models that look like they’ve come off of god’s own assembly line wish they could change some part of their appearance.

In a recent survey, respondents confessed that they feel insecure about their:

• Height (8%)
• Weight (52%)
• Hair (21%)
• Face (32%)
• Breasts (26%)
• Arms (29%)
• Waist (30%)
• Stomach (75%)
• Butt (23%)

Only 4% of respondents said they don’t feel insecure about any part of their bodies.

Our clients come to us with more than a simple desire to tweak something. They’re often looking for help with insecurity that has plagued them for years.

Someone may come to us for a nose job because they feel deeply insecure about their nose, and they have felt that way for as long as they can remember. They may be hyper-conscious of only letting people take pictures from the most flattering angles. Or they may feel that people who meet them for the first time stare at their nose.

Are You Thinking About Getting a Nose Job?

Ask yourself, “What would a nose job do for me?” If getting a nose job would help you reduce social anxiety and help you get rid of longstanding insecurity, it could be worth it for you. At the very least, you should explore your options.

The first thing you should know is that there are two broad types of rhinoplasty:

External Rhinoplasty: A small incision is made in the base of the nose. The nasal skin is lifted up over the cartilage and the bony structure so that it can be changed and stabilized.

Closed Rhinoplasty: This is also called internal or endonasal rhinoplasty. No incision is made at the base of the nose. The incisions are placed entirely inside the nose and inside the nostrils.

Which one would work for you? Dr. Bell is an expert in both techniques and can help you find the perfect solution for you. He has helped countless people boost their self-esteem by giving them the mirror image they have always wanted.

Combating Bullying

These enduring insecurities are often reinforced by years of bullying and teasing.

Did cruel kids tease you in school? Or did they brand you with an unflattering nickname that stuck around for far too long? These emotional scars last for years and we carry them into adulthood. You might put on a brave face when friends or family members playfully tease you. But below the surface, it hurts as much as ever.

Nobody is immune to it. In fact, even the queen of fitness, Jillian Michaels, has been very open about getting plastic surgery on her nose during her teen years. She was bullied relentlessly until she decided to do something about it. Michaels said that the decision was a life-changer for her, and she obviously hates bullies to this day.

Plastic surgery (whether it’s facial or body contouring) can help you deal with a physical hang-up or insecurity that has followed you into adulthood. It’s your chance to finally feel like the person you have always wanted to be.

Boosting Your Career

Getting plastic surgery can also help you move your career forward.

First and foremost, you will carry yourself with more confidence. When you encounter someone for the first time in a meeting or at a networking event, you can greet them graciously and attentively, instead of worrying about them noticing your flaw.

You will also feel more confident going into interviews for promotions or new roles, and 70% of employers view a confident personality among the top traits they’re looking for in an applicant.

You might also consider plastic surgery if you’re working in a youth-filled industry like technology, media, marketing or PR. This is why droves of men working in Silicon Valley are getting plastic surgery (most often a traditional facelift procedure) to help their careers. They may be just over 35, but they could be seen as over the hill. In the world of technology, being young is associated with being innovative, with fresh ideas, and boundless energy. You don’t want to be perceived as the “old guy” with nothing new to bring to the table and stale ideas.

At the same time, if you have a camera-facing job (i.e. a TV personality, actor, or Instagram influencer), getting plastic surgery may even be the industry standard. It’s not even about looking younger or looking perfect. It’s about exuding the confidence that your audience can feel.

Eliminating the Shame From a Weight Loss ‘Failure’

Too many people torture themselves because they can’t lose weight. They beat themselves up over it, and feel fat or lazy.

Part of the problem is that we’ve all been sold a lie: That losing weight is easy. The internet has a yottabyte’s worth of diets and fitness tips available to everyone for free. This gives us the impression that losing weight should be easy. But it’s not—not even close.

Losing weight the right way (i.e. healthily and sustainably) almost always requires a significant lifestyle shift. You have to find room in your daily routine for working out, while you change the way you shop for groceries and order in restaurants. It’s hard work that requires a lot of discipline, patience, and self-forgiveness.

And here is something that Under Armour, Lululemon and Fitbit commercials don’t tell you: You can easily have all of their gear and follow all of their plans, but still fall short of your fitness goals. This feels like a crushing failure. You feel a very real sense of shame and it makes matters ten times worse.

You need to treat yourself with kindness when attempting to lose weight. Acknowledge that some things are out of your control. For example, there are thousands of people that have put on weight during the COVID-19 crisis because they can’t go to the gym. This phenomenon is so widespread that it has been dubbed, “The Quarantine 15.”

Unachieved Fitness Goals Aren’t Your Fault!

If you have never attempted to lose weight before, you will have no baseline for expectations. You may have no idea that losing 60 pounds in 6 months is unreasonable for someone your age and with your metabolism. So, you fall short of your goal. But there is no need to torture yourself over this perceived failure.

You’ve gone as far as diet and exercise can reasonably take you. Good for you! Be proud of yourself for committing enough to get this far. Most people have no idea where their limits are because they never push themselves.

It’s OK to need a little bit of help to go the rest of the way. That help could come in the form of a liposuction procedure or breast augmentation surgery to take things to the next level. These procedures can help give you the physique that you should have after all of this work. You can finally get the body you’ve earned.

Does Liposuction Hurt?

You might be familiar with the older liposuction technique called a tumescent cannula. This method removed fat, but it left unsightly bruising, swelling, and pain in the early post-op period.

That’s why we use more modern techniques. Our leading-edge energy-assisted devices will heat, liquefy, and coagulate the fat just prior to its aspiration and removal.

The technology we use includes:

• BodyTite (radiofrequency energy)
• SmartLipo (laser energy)
• VaserLipo (ultrasound energy)

We feel that recovery from liposuction should be pain-free! Any of these techniques will give you amazing results, without any of the pain, swelling, or bruising.

If you’re already living an active and healthy lifestyle, you are the perfect candidate for body contouring. These procedures can help you take care of those last few stubborn pounds or inches, while you already have the lifestyle to keep this weight off. Your results will last far longer, and you can enjoy your goal-body (or even dream body) for years and years to come.

Body contouring can take the shame out of the weight loss process. It can help you feel pride in yourself and love yourself again.

Gaining More Confidence When Getting Back into Dating

We are seeing a new wave of people getting plastic surgery to feel more confident when re-entering the world of dating.

People in their 40s, 50s and 60s are dating far more than previous generations. We have seen the divorce rate among baby boomers nearly double since the 1990s, which has led to an older generation of people, “Getting back out there.”

A lot of these people know that they are, clearly, older than the last time they had to go on a first date. However, they may worry that they look even older.

If they’re a divorcee, they may have been under a lot of stress (sometimes for years at a time) and they now feel like that stress can be seen on their face, around their eyes, and on their waistline. This may mean they’re entering the already-terrifying prospect of dating again with low self-esteem. That’s not ideal.

This is why we’re seeing a spike in people getting plastic surgery before they re-enter the world of dating. They want to smile confidently and feel better than they have in years. They want the prospect of dating to be exciting, not mortifying.

In fact, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that there were nearly 50,000 more cosmetic procedures performed on people 55 and older in 2018 than in the previous year. This older demographic accounted for nearly 50% of all eyelid surgeries and about 66% of all facelifts performed that year.

The other popular procedures include:

• Liposuction
• Hair transplantation
• Botox and fillers

Now, armed with this newfound confidence, people re-entering the dating world can put their best foot forward and be the best version of themselves. Popular fashion may have changed since their last first-date, but confidence never goes out of style.

Feeling Better and Sleeping Better!

insecure about how you look, you feel stressed. If your career or dating life is getting you down, you feel stressed. This keeps you up at night.

Stress and mental health issues always rank among the top sleep-killers on any list, right up there with too much caffeine and poor eating habits. If you can reduce the amount of stress that you feel every day, you can greatly reduce the amount of time that you spend tossing and turning in bed at night.

At the same time, plastic surgery can also have a far more tangible impact on your sleep patterns. Countless people have had rhinoplasty surgery to help them with respiratory issues (sleep apnea, for example) that keep them up. Too many people will needlessly struggle with these issues for years. A rhinoplasty procedure can open up constricted airways and help these people breathe easily again.

In fact, Hollywood A-lister, Jennifer Aniston, didn’t get rhinoplasty to help her appearance. She got it to fix a deviated septum that had plagued her for over a decade. Anniston said, “Best thing I ever did. I slept like a baby for the first time in years.”

As you can see, the mental benefits of undergoing the right plastic surgery procedure go well beyond, “Look better. Feel better.” For millions of people, plastic surgery has been the solution to a problem that has haunted them for years. They’re able to leave old hang-ups and insecurities behind them. They feel themselves growing into the person they have always dreamed of being.

The physical changes you see in the mirror may be immediate. But the mental benefits may slowly reveal themselves over the next few months (or even years) as you start to live your best possible life.