Cosmetic surgery aims to improve appearance but requires extensive training to perform safely. Only plastic surgeons who have completed an MCh/DNB in plastic surgery and registered with the Indian Medical Council are qualified. Allowing underqualified or unlicensed practitioners to perform cosmetic procedures can lead to permanent disfigurement, blindness, infection or even death due to a lack of surgical expertise and ability to handle complications. Beauty parlors and other non-medical facilities do not meet sanitary or regulatory standards for surgical procedures. Patients seeking cosmetic surgery should carefully verify a practitioner's qualifications to reduce risks and ensure their safety.

1. COSMETIC SURGERY

2. WHAT IS COSMETIC SURGERY?
• Cosmetic Surgery is one of the two branches of Plastic Surgery; the other
being reconstructive surgery
• The goal of cosmetic surgery is to improve a person’s appearance, self
esteem and self confidence
• It can be performed on almost any part of the body

3. ……BUT IT MUST BE APPROACHED WITH
CAUTION
• A lot can go wrong if the surgery is not performed with caution.These
wrongs cannot be undone and can leave a permanent scar or disfigurement
of the body
• It requires a very specific kind of training and practice and a certain kind of
awareness of surgical procedures and training in plastic surgery

4. Cosmetic Surgery is a Specialised Branch
• Cosmetic Surgery, just like neurology or cardiology is an intensive discipline.
• Suppose you needed a heart transplant, you would carefully verify the
degrees, certifications, reputation of a cardiologist and you will go only to a
cardiologist to get a surgery.
• You need to do the same for a hair transplant!

5. Who is Qualified to Perform Cosmetic Surgery?
• Be it a hair transplant or a liposuction, to perform a cosmetic surgery one
needs to have an MCh/DNB in Plastic Surgery and be registered with the
Indian Medical Council
• In India presently, other kinds of doctors and beauticians are performing
cosmetic surgery who do not have the training to perform surgery at all

6. Dangers of PresentTrends
• A lot of non-certified plastic surgeons are offering cosmetic procedures
presently.
• A lot of them do not even have medical qualifications and things can go very
wrong here.

7. What can go wrong?
• Those without adequate experience and training in cosmetic surgery
specifically are not equipped to deal with post-surgical complications that
only a surgeon can deal with
• Unlicensed performance of surgery can cause sever injury to the patient
which again only a surgeon is equipped to deal with
• There is often the injection of anaesthesia just like in usual surgical
procedures which may lead to complications only experts can handle

8. ……There may be unimaginable harm caused!
• Facial filler injections are considered to be a minor surgery – however they
can lead to swelling, pain and hard lumps if not injected by a trained
practitioner – once these are incorrectly placed they can also be difficult to
remove
• Incorrect application can in severe cases even lead to blindness and stroked
if they are injected into the renal artery
• If too much is injected around the blood cells it can lead to necrosis

9. Not to be done in beauty parlours!
• We all love to visit beauty parlours to look beautiful for various occasions
and they do a great job. But they are not medical practitioners!!
• Just like any surgical procedure, cosmetic surgery too needs a nuanced
understanding of the body. It requires a degree in surgery!

10. Some Conditions Have to be Met!
• Cosmetic tools are favourable environment for transmission of bacteria,
fungi and other microbes…. Equipment needs to be kept in proper sterilised
conditions. Cosmetics are frequently shared in beauty salons! A surgical
procedure in such an environment can lead to more harm than good.
• Non-medical procedures are unregulated and do not bear the risk of loss of
license for something gone wrong.There are not sufficient checks and
balances when non-medical personnel practice medical procedures.

11. ONLY A PLASTIC SURGEON
• While dental surgeons deal with fractured jaws, improperly aligned teeth
and know their way around the head and neck, they are not equipped to
deal with severe trauma that may occur which only plastic surgeons can.
• Further, a dental degree is not a substitute for a surgery degree. Just like you
will not trust a plastic surgeons to fill a cavity or perform a root canal, it is
not to be expected of dental surgeons to perform cosmetic procedures.

12. ONLY A PLASTIC SURGEON
• In cases of cosmetic surgery – you are dealing with the bone, cartilage
among others.You need a knowledge to deal with hypertension, blood
clots, strokes – what surgeons deal with all the time

13. Different from Dermatology!
• Cosmetic Dermatology deals with the appearance of the skin and just the skin, hair
and nails!
• It is the same difference that exists between surgery and dermatology where
neither can replace the other.
• Dermatologists work with the hair, skin and nails. Cosmetic dermatology involves
use of skin care products for recovering and healing, use of dermo scopes to look at
pigmented lesions of the skin among other things
• Cosmetic surgeons work beyond the skin- they use surgical techniques.

14. SpecialisedWork
• Cosmetic surgeons analyse the medical history, allergies, pre-existing
conditions to determine the fitness of the patient
• Prescribe antibiotics in accordance with surgical principles
• They are experts in facial anatomy
• Have extensive training in anaesthetics
• Trained in both invasive and non-invasive techniques

15. MAKETHE RIGHT CHOICE
FORYOU ANDYOUR
PATIENT!