Plastic surgery not just for folks with low self-esteem

If you think that only people who have low-self esteem go under the knife, think again. A new study dares to break that misconception.

According to a study in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery(a journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons), body satisfaction has no influence on whether or not a person is interested in most forms of plastic surgery. The study says that most people who want to undergo plastic surgery are actually those who have a normal level of body satisfaction. This ruins the preconceived notion that only those who have low self-esteem actually think of plastic surgery as an option to solve certain flaws of the body.

This recent study employed two measures of body image and satisfaction. And these are:

• How the participant rated his or her own attractiveness
• Comfort in a swimsuit

The result? The overall body satisfaction in people interested in cosmetic plastic surgery, other than liposuction, did not differ from the people who were not interested.

A different scenario transpired concerning those who are interested in liposuction. Those who are interested in liposuction surgery did have lower body satisfaction than others. People who think they were too heavy and people who were really too heavy by objective standards, were more like to have an interest in liposuction than those who were satisfied with their own weight.

As expected, the study shows that people who are so into monitoring their appearance are more like to have an interest in cosmetic procedures than those who pay less attention to thir looks. This suggests that people who value their appearance so much might get motivated to consider plastic surgery.

It has been found out that 48 percent of women are interested in having cosmetic surgery while 23 percent said they were possibly interested. Moreover, 23 percent of men showed interest in cosmetic plastic surgery while 17 percent were possibly interested.

Oddly, older people did not have a higher desire for cosmetic surgery. The percentage for older people was similar across all other age groups for both men and women.