Cosmetic Surgery in the UK and Dangers to TeenagersPublished on 2nd May 2014
Last April, a report by NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh revealed that 41% of girls aged seven to 10 and 63% aged 11 to 16 said they felt under pressure to look the way celebrities appear to in the media. Suggesting that surgery had become “normalised” in pursuit of a “designer” body. As a result he called for tougher controls over who can provide cosmetic surgery in the UK and cosmetic surgery treatments, and how they can be marketed and displayed.
Currently the rules about offering children cosmetic surgery in the UK are similar to those for other “permanent” procedures such as tattoos. Any cosmetic surgery performed on a child aged under 18 requires parental consent, although there is a grey area after 16 in which parents cannot insist on treatment. Unfortunately in the UK, the lack of regulation over cosmetic surgery means that to date anyone can purchase dermal fillers (Juvederm/Restylane) online and set up shop, which suggests the grey area is a far greater problem than that. Wrinkle relaxing treatments using Botulinum Toxin (Botox) are regulated as this is a prescribed medicine.
The BAAPS (British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons who are the UK plastic surgery organisation call dermal fillers “a crisis waiting to happen”. UK cosmetic surgery guidelines suggest that teenagers must have reached certain milestones in growth and physical maturity as well as “emotional maturity”.
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