Cosmetic Surgery

A health insurance plan that covers breast implants, Botox and body sculpture? Not exactly. But growing numbers of health insurers are starting to offer sizable discounts on cosmetic surgery to entice new members and retain existing ones. There's no doubt that many Americans want medical help in looking better. They spent about $9 billion in 2001 on plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. About 8.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported Monday that chin implantation -- a.k.a. the "chinplant" -- was the fastest-growing cosmetic plastic surgery procedure in 2011.  "The chin and the jawline are among the first areas to show signs of aging," Dr. Malcolm Z. Roth, the organization's president, said in a statement. "People are considering chin augmentation as a way to restore their youthful look just like a facelift or eyelid surgery. " Overall, chin implants were up 71% over 2010, with procedures split more or less evenly between men (who had 10,593 of the surgeries)

The faulty breast implants made by the French company Poly Implants Protheses, or PIP, have grabbed headlines around the world in recent weeks, and it's no wonder. The prostheses are more prone to rupture than other models, and they contain an industrial grade of silicone never intended for use in a medical device. The scandal is also global in scope. Sold in 65 countries, the implants were re-branded by a Dutch company registered in Cyprus, offered on credit in Venezuela and smuggled into Bolivia, where they were bought by medical tourists.

When John Tlapa looked in the mirror, his nose looked like he "could pick a door lock," he said. It resembled "a hook with a point on it. It was pretty ugly. " So two years ago, the San Diego-based screenwriter underwent rhinoplasty to improve his profile and fix a deviated septum that had plagued him for almost 40 years. Tlapa, 54, is part of a trend that, in recent years, has seen increasing numbers of men seeking cosmetic surgery. In 2011, 9% of surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures in the U.S. were conducted on men, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery - a 121% increase since 1997.

I don't have anything against cosmetic surgery. No amount of running or iron pumping was going to do anything about the genetically programmed dark circles under my eyes, so I got those things zapped with a nuclear-powered laser that made me twitch and fidget in the chair like a spider monkey coming off a meth bender. Cosmetic surgery can, quite simply, do things that diet and exercise can't. If you've got something that looks like that mutant from "Total Recall" hanging off your stomach telling you to "start the reactor," and it bothers you more than the sizeable surgery scars will, then getting some work done on this area could be an option.

Six months after the mother of Kanye West died following liposuction and breast implant surgery, the reverberations of the tragedy continue to be felt. Now lawmakers and physicians are urging greater protections for patients undergoing cosmetic surgery. Across the country, such surgeries are increasingly done outside hospital settings in outpatient clinics, where a doctor can avoid the rigorous review that, say, a heart surgeon would face at a traditional hospital.

There's a lot to consider before having cosmetic surgery -- the cost, the procedure, the risks and, of course, the doctor. Here are two experts who can help with those decisions. Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Paul Wigoda -- and medical malpractice attorney Sarah Steinbaum -- will be guests on a live Web chat Friday (noon EST, 11 a.m. CST and 9 a.m. PST). The online discussion will focus on how to shop for a plastic surgeon, what expectations are realistic and related topics. So come join the online chat with your own set of questions.

When Margaret first met her boyfriend, she weighed 105 pounds and wore short crop tops. But after 13 years together, the 55-year-old retiree from Torrance developed a "muffin top" that she just couldn't eliminate. So she did what so many other women do to get their bodies back: She had lipoplasty on her waist, hips and upper and lower abdomen in September. One week later, her boyfriend had lipoplasty for himself. "He hadn't thought about getting anything done, but after hearing how I would look afterward, he decided he should probably go ahead and have a little something done too," said Margaret, who asked that her last name not be used for privacy reasons.

The faulty breast implants made by the French company Poly Implants Protheses, or PIP, have grabbed headlines around the world in recent weeks, and it's no wonder. The prostheses are more prone to rupture than other models, and they contain an industrial grade of silicone never intended for use in a medical device. The scandal is also global in scope. Sold in 65 countries, the implants were re-branded by a Dutch company registered in Cyprus, offered on credit in Venezuela and smuggled into Bolivia, where they were bought by medical tourists.

A San Francisco man with no medical license performed liposuction on a woman while smoking a cigar, then flushed 6 pounds of fat he removed down her toilet, a newspaper reported Friday. Carlos Guzmangarza, 49, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of posing as a physician assistant to perform cosmetic surgery on the woman and treat her daughter for acne, said Stephanie Ong Stillman, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney's office. Guzmangarza is accused of operating a bogus clinic on Mission Street called the Derma Clinic, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

There's a lot to consider before having cosmetic surgery -- the cost, the procedure, the risks and, of course, the doctor. Here are two experts who can help with those decisions. Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Paul Wigoda -- and medical malpractice attorney Sarah Steinbaum -- will be guests on a live Web chat Friday (noon EST, 11 a.m. CST and 9 a.m. PST). The online discussion will focus on how to shop for a plastic surgeon, what expectations are realistic and related topics. So come join the online chat with your own set of questions.

Premiering Sunday on E! (exclamation point theirs), "Bridalplasty" is a series in which, to steal a headline from a network press release, "Brides-to-Be Compete in Wedding-Themed Challenges Collecting Extreme Plastic Surgery Procedures While Trying to Win a Dream Celebrity-Style Wedding. " I'm sure it's all the same to E! whether you are delighted or horrified by this idea, as long as you watch. But I would not encourage it. If you believe that we own our own bodies, it's hard to argue against cosmetic surgery on any sort of moral grounds.

I don't have anything against cosmetic surgery. No amount of running or iron pumping was going to do anything about the genetically programmed dark circles under my eyes, so I got those things zapped with a nuclear-powered laser that made me twitch and fidget in the chair like a spider monkey coming off a meth bender. Cosmetic surgery can, quite simply, do things that diet and exercise can't. If you've got something that looks like that mutant from "Total Recall" hanging off your stomach telling you to "start the reactor," and it bothers you more than the sizeable surgery scars will, then getting some work done on this area could be an option.

He Zen's path to cosmetic surgery was fast and simple. Her mother saw an ad in a Shanghai newspaper and figured that more Caucasian-looking eyes would make it easier for her unmarried 28-year-old daughter to find a husband. She made an appointment for her daughter the next Saturday morning. When He Zen went to the clinic and saw some examples of the doctor's work, she agreed to have the $290 operation that afternoon. Shortly after enduring the two-week recovery period, she got what she'd been after: not an offer of marriage, but the offer of a coveted internship with the Shanghai office of the British banking giant HSBC, which later led to a full-time job. "A lot of people think it's not very good politics — a kind of scandal — to have these kinds of small procedures," said He Zen, a petite, confident woman who's now an HSBC manager.

Several studies show that some people who repeatedly seek cosmetic surgery are afflicted with a mental disorder called body dysmorphic disorder. But undergoing a nip here, tuck there or a poke between the eyes does nothing to improve the mental condition of these people, according to a new study. Body dysmorphic disorder is a condition in which people become preoccupied with their looks to the point of being obsessed over minor flaws or perceived imperfections. They often become so addled by their obsession over physical beauty they become dysfunctional in other aspects of their lives.