Dr Ash Dutta answers can you become addicted to cosmetic Surgery?

Yes, you can, but it is the responsibility of the doctor to explain to the patient before undertaking any procedure and assessing the patient from a psychological point of view and asking the patient why they want it.

We know that in cosmetic surgery clinics there are patients that are coming in with body dismorphing disorder. In the general population there is 1-2% of the population who has some kind of disorder. If you compare this to the patients of a cosmetic surgery, that percentage goes up to as high as 12-15% on occasions so 1 in 6 patients have some kind of disorder.

As a doctor if you can explain that to the patient that this is the reason why you are having this procedure and understand the patients needs and concerns and then undertake the procedure then it is safer. On some occasions we have to turn the patient down. If we find the patients needs are slightly difficult to manage or you cant deliver and some patients will be very trivial and you cannot see the problem that the patient is talking about then it is your responsibility to council the patient or refer the patient back to the GP for counselling purposes rather than undertaken the procedure.

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