With the selfie craze and social media taking over our lives, the dynamics of plastic surgery have also developed considerably. Cosmetic surgery, which was only performed by celebrities for a while, has become a part of our lives by increasing its accessibility. Again, while in the very recent past, people wanted to hide the fact that they had plastic surgery, today we are in an age where the surgery processes are shared by patients on blogs and vlogs with pleasure and excitement.
The most common cosmetic surgery performed worldwide is breast augmentation surgery. This is followed by liposuction and eyelid aesthetics. I have the same ranking in my own practice. Depending on the popularity of these surgeries, the most information on social media and the internet is available on these operations.
In my preliminary interviews for breast augmentation operation, I explain the process to my patients in all details and most of the time I have the opportunity to analyse the information my patients have obtained as a result of their research. In this process, I have noticed that although many people really want this operation, they are afraid due to the misinformation they have acquired and postpone this operation until they meet a reliable plastic surgeon. This postponement can sometimes take years
For example, if the body comes into contact with an object that does not belong to it, it wages war against this structure. If it cannot destroy this structure, it quarantines this structure. Since the prosthesis is also a foreign body, the same reactions occur against this object and this process ends with a quarantine tissue surrounding the prosthesis. We call this quarantine tissue a capsule. And we actually like this capsule because it has a great importance in preserving the result we obtain after surgery. However, while explaining this process to patients, I see a fear and uneasiness against the word capsule in most of my patients. However, what they are worried about is a side effect called capsule contracture, which we can often prevent with the appropriate prosthesis and correct technique. The reason for this situation is that women gain the impression that the capsule tissue is a bad tissue in the researches they do on the internet and the blogs they read. And for this reason, I had many patients who said that they were afraid of surgery and ran away.
It is obvious that social media and selfie craze ignite the desire to achieve the perfect body. As a result, there is a serious increase in plastic surgeries, especially on the fitness side. With a disciplined diet and fitness, women can achieve the image they want in their bodies except breast. However, they keep away from breast aesthetics with the fear that they will fall behind in their sports life after prosthesis surgery. We have good news for women who want to achieve their dream breast after having a fit body but are afraid of this surgery because they will stay away from sports. It is free to return to light walks immediately after surgery, cardio exercises after 2 weeks, all exercises except weight lifting after 4 weeks, and all exercises after 6 weeks. Because of my interest in sports, we prepare exercise plans together, especially for my patients who are interested in fitness.
Again, recently, information has spread that breast prostheses cause cancer. It is not true that breast implants cause breast cancer. The basis of this information is the similarity of the exaggerated reaction response around the prosthesis with a type of lymphoma (ALCL). ALCL is a type of lymphoma with a slow course. This disease, which has been described around the breast implant, has a much slower clinical course than ALCL and can be treated by removing the capsule tissue around the implant. Women who are considering a breast augmentation operation can get the most accurate information about this disease, which occurs in only 680 people out of billions of women who have undergone breast augmentation or breast reconstruction with prosthesis worldwide, only from aesthetic and plastic surgeons.
