Should S’pore ban cosmetic treatments for youth?
SINGAPORE – There are some things that youth should not be exposed to, too early in life – smoking, drinking and cosmetic procedures are among them.
And just as there are laws to prevent those who are under 18 years old from buying alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, so too should there be a ban on children and teenagers under 18 going for cosmetic treatments.
The popularity of cosmetic procedures among youth has shot up in the United States, and possibly here.
Statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that 230,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on patients under 18 years of age in the United States in 2011 – up from just 14,000 in 1996.
This led a team headed by Dr Ng Jia Hui of Singapore General Hospital (SGH) to look into how popular cosmetic treatments are among youth here.
They surveyed 1,164 junior college and 241 medical school students and found that one in three junior college students and one in four medical students approve of their peers going for such treatment.
Only 14 admitted to having had such procedures. The three favourite areas for treatment were the nose, eyes and skin.
Also, one in nine JC students and one in six medical students “were keen on body contouring of areas such as the thighs, buttocks and abdomen”, the team said in an article in the August edition of the Singapore Medical Journal.
The team of three doctors and a dentist added: “A large percentage of the JC students did not have any knowledge of the risks associated with cosmetic procedures.
“Even among the medical students, 35.7 per cent of the students were unaware of any risks.”
And among those who said they were aware of the risks, not all knew what the real risks were.
The team cited an American study that found the sources of information on cosmetic procedures for many young people are television shows and teen magazines – hence the lack of awareness on the risks that come with the procedures.
In Singapore, at least two people have died as a direct result of having gone for cosmetic procedures. There are also many horror stories of procedures gone wrong, resulting in the patients looking worse than they did before their operations.
Not all botched jobs can be successfully repaired.
Source: The Straits Times
