Our Quest To Be Perfect

Many procedures are increasingly performed in doctors' offices rather than hospitals--and that itself can increase the risk. Hospital operating rooms must meet strict equipment and personnel guidelines that generally don't apply to in-office surgical units. In 1997, Judy Loveless, a 49-year-old flight attendant, died while having eyelid surgery at an office suite in Atlanta (following story). The office was not equipped with a crash cart, routine in hospitals, that could have helped save her life.

Medical experts are also worried about a growing trend in multiple procedures; combining a face-lift and eyebrow lift with liposuction, for example. Some doctors will offer discounts if patients opt for several fixes at once. But loading up can keep patients on the surgical table too long, putting them at greater risk for complications. Certain states, including California and Florida, have taken the lead with stiffer regulations for in-office surgeries. There's similar legislation in the works in other states.

After all the incisions, the blasting, the snipping and sewing, the loans and lost vacations, consider this: most plastic surgery is temporary. Botox and collagen have to be re-administered every few months. Face-lifts last about a decade. The earlier you begin many procedures, the more often you'll need them done. And though liposuction can shrink problem areas, it doesn't keep you thin. "[Patients] can eat faster than I can suck," says Pitman. "That can ruin the effect of surgery."

Who will be deterred? Certainly not Lisa King, a 31-year-old mortgage-loan officer in Atlanta. After having two kids, King says she wanted to firm up her abdomen and perk up her breasts. "I was doing sit-ups and all kinds of Nautilus, but that loose skin and fat was just not going to go away," she says. She made her decision after a self-conscious walk on the beach and last February spent her $10,000 bonus on a "tummy tuck and a boob job." The results--displayed soon afterward on vacation in Aruba--so impressed her mother, Ann Alford, 51, that she, too, had a tummy tuck. Since then, King has referred four other people to her surgeon. "Perfection," it seems, is contagious.

Thomas Hayden, Ana Figueroa, Sarah Downey, Jill Jordan Sieder, John Lauerman, Ellise Pierce and Elizabeth Roberts

© 1999