Plastic Surgery Articles

Giving the Gift of Cosmetic Surgery

December 14, 2006 -

When 48-year-old Tina Baldwin of Newfield N.J. found out that her husband was buying her the cosmetic surgery of her choice for Christmas, she was thrilled.

Many cosmetic surgery centers across the country are offering holiday gift discounts on various procedures, from Botox wrinkle removal to new FDA-approved silicone breast implants.

Though, experts are quibbling over the ethics of giving the gift of plastic surgery, they all agree that it should not be done lightly.

Trivializing, Offensive, or Rewarding?

“It’s not perfume, a piece of jewelry or a spa treatment. Giving cosmetic surgery as a gift trivializes a serious medical procedure,” said associate professor of psychology at the Center for Human Appearance at University of Pennsylvania school of medicine in Philadelphia, David Sarwer. He added that, “The giver may have good intentions, but it could place undo pressure on the person on the receiving end.”

Another expert, a Long Island plastic surgeon Zachary Gerut, says that offering plastic surgery as a gift may offend the receiver. He noted that many husbands buy their wives breast implants around Christmas. “Why don’t you just insult the poor lady and be done with it? It’s like telling someone they have bad breath,” he said.

Before giving the gift, one should consider that some procedures might not last, plastic surgeons say. Gerut offered the example of Botox treatments, which remove wrinkles temporarily. “You have to come back every six months for treatment because they wear off.”

Other experts believe that giving someone plastic surgery can be a very rewarding experience, and that many people who do receive such gifts are happy with them - especially if the receiver has requested a specific procedure, and is a good candidate health-wise.

“As long as the giver is not attempting to impose the cosmetic procedure he wants on the individual receiving, there is little downside,” said David Watts, a Vineland N.J. plastic surgeon who offers plastic surgery gift cards. In those cases, Watts says, “It gives the giver the opportunity to say, I hope I have helped to make you feel better about yourself.’”

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