Making the Cut Nip and tuck on campus: enhancing the student body
Summer 2005 - The letters A, B, C, and D have taken on an entirely new meaning on college campuses. They no longer simply refer to that grade on your latest math test or term paper. Nowadays, the letters are also a guide to the changing breast sizes at the center of an exploding trend in plastic surgery among college students.
Plastic surgery procedures among college patients have increased 30 to 40 percent over the last three to four years, according to Dr. Rod Rohrich, former fresident of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPAS) and current chair of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Many of the patients, both male and female, see plastic surgery as more of an option because of the Internet and the media advertising, he said. Due to a combination of falling costs and a more affluent society, students are not only more informed about possible procedures, but increasingly able to afford them. According to Rohrich, the most highly sought after procedures by college females are liposuction, rhinoplasties — nose-reshaping surgery — and breast implants, which students often undergo over vacations.
Courtney Thompson, a senior at the University of Michigan, changed her cup size from a double A to a C in 2003. Thompson started to want surgery when her breasts shrank from a B cup to a double A after she started jogging regularly. For several years she struggled to find clothing, especially going-out clothes. Eventually, instead of going on Spring Break, the then twenty-one year old stayed home to have the surgery.
“It didn’t sound very invasive,” she said. “[The surgeon] told me you could get the incision in your armpit or under your breasts. Once we made all those choices he told me to go home and pick out pictures from Victoria Secret ads or whatever, of how I wanted to look.”
Despite the surgeon’s assurances that the procedure was non-invasive, Thompson’s surgery was not without complications. After the implants were inserted under her muscles for a “more realistic look,” Thompson said she noticed her right breast hurt more than her left.
“I had a rare thing called capsular contraction, when scar tissue forms around the implant because your body recognizes it as foreign.” After treatment, her breasts healed without further problems.
Thompson said the $7,000 operation was worth every penny because it boosted her confidence. Though she described the initial pain as “crushing,” she said she was pleased with her decision to have surgery.
Dr. Edwin Wilkins, an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Medical School who specializes in plastic surgery, said that college students are turning to cosmetic surgery in increasing numbers. However, Wilkins warns that some cosmetic surgeries are not geared toward the college market.
“I think rhinoplasties in the late teenage years are not unreasonable things to do, under the right circumstances,” he said. “I differentiate that from other things like breast augmentation, body contouring with liposuction, chin implants, and other aesthetic procedures that may be more appropriate for older age groups.”
Beccah Green, whose name has been changed at her request, is a UMich alumnus who graduated this winter. She had a rhinoplasty when she was eighteen.
“I was a senior in high school [when I had the surgery] but I had my (first) consultation when I was fifteen,” Green said. She added that she chose to have the operation before college because this was already a period of transition in her life.
“It actually wasn’t a typical one because they didn’t have to break the bone…but it was still rhinoplasty.”
Green said she thinks plastic surgery is common on campus. “A lot of people are getting nose jobs. Plenty on campus…One of my roommates, she had one done,” she said, adding that she did not think cosmetic surgery in college is stigmatized as much as it has been in the past.
Indeed, a recent survey by the ASPS found that only 8.7 percent of college students and college graduates disapprove of cosmetic surgery while 38.6 percent actually approve of it for themselves and others.
In addition to acceptance, the procedures also garner much attention. Kyle Allison, a junior at UMich, says he approves of cosmetic surgery for others but not himself. He noticed when his friend got a nose job over summer vacation. “It looked like he had taken his nose from a manikin. It looked sculpted,” he said.
Allison is not the only one who noticed an increase in the number of younger patients getting operations like nose reshaping surgery. The ASPS estimated that nose reshaping among the 18 and younger group rose 43 percent from 2002 to 2003. The increase is also similar in the 19 to 34 age group where the percentage grew 15 percent from 2002 to 2003. The AmericanSociety of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found that by 2004, the 19 to 34 age group made up 52 percent of nose reshaping patients.
University of Michigan sophomore Megan Fizell, had two friends who got plastic surgery in high school. Fizell says one of the girls had a large bump on the bridge of her nose. When she came back from break her nose was smooth. “It was a big deal; a lot of people talked about it,” she added.
Another friend who had a breast reduction inspired the same response. “It was a big discussion at lunch. The guys couldn’t believe she had done it, and the girls were happy for her,” Fizell said.
While this trend is new, according to Wilkins, the reasons behind it are not. “People have always, and will always, care very much about how they look. What is changing, I think, is what the public views as acceptable or not acceptable as far as changing one’s appearance.
Now people are going beyond dyeing their hair, and maybe thinking of changing their facialappearance or their figures.” He added that “any number of things now are more widely perceived as being acceptable—and not just for the rich and famous.”
A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s, then, are becoming the marks of competition both in and out of the classroom. What Rohrich calls “America’s obsession with the quick fix,” is now finding its way onto college campuses as more and more students go under the knife.
From....Kim Tomlin is a senior at the University of Michigan.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7503078/site/newsweek/
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