Plastic Surgery Contests: A big No-No

Breast Augmentation, Breast Implants, Plastic Surgery Comments (2)

Almost every year, a rock radio station in California’s Inland Empire holds a contest known as “Boob Camp.”

Young women who are let’s say, bust line challenged show up in the parking lot outside the station over six weeks. The purpose? To decide who is most in need of a breast augmentation. Then the surgery is awarded to the plastic surgeon who has sponsored that year’s contest.

So what’s all the fuss?

For one, the correct motivation for any cosmetic plastic surgery comes from the patient’s desire to look better.  Not to win a contest.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Rob Oliver on his most excellent blog, Plastic Surgery 101, writes about a Florida radio station that sponsors a similar cosmetic surgery contest. In this case, the winner is selected on the basis of she who “parties the hardest” during a slumber party.

So what’s wrong with that?

She may party hearty but she may also not be an appropriate candidate for breast enhancement. That’s something for the surgeon – who has five to seven additional years of training – to determine after an interview and physical exam.

In this case, however, the surgeon performing the breast augmentation was not trained in plastic surgery but in emergency medicine. (Check out our post on finding a trained plastic surgeon for your procedure.)

Awarding plastic surgery for any type of contest is against the ethical code of the major professional societies, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) who say cosmetic plastic surgery should be done:

• In a medical, not party, setting
• When patients and physicians can carefully consider irreversible decisions
• When the benefits outweigh any possible risks

Have you ever been in a contest?

admin @ March 18, 2009