Growing number of North American teens turning to cosmetic surgery

TORONTO - A growing number of North American teens are undergoing cosmetic surgery in a bid to enhance their looks.

For some it is reducing or increasing their breasts size, and for others its getting a new nose to go with their sunglasses.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, teen surgeries have doubled in the last eight years.

In 2008, 219,000 cosmetic procedures were reportedly performed in the U.S. on patients aged 13 to 19.

Almost 39,000 of those procedures were cosmetic enhancements such as breast reductions and augmentations, liposuction, tummy tucks and nose reshaping.

Although there is no equivalent data for Canada, doctors such as Oakley Smith, a plastic surgeon who works out of Toronto East General Hospital, say that the amount of teenagers seeking cosmetic enhancements in this country is also on the rise.

“The number of teens I treat has definitely doubled over the last 10 years,” the Globe and Mail quoted Smith, who typically deals with youths seeking rhinoplasty, as saying.

Smith assumes that adolescent pressure to fit in and not stand out is one of the reasons.

“There’s a bigger pressure toward perfection in today’s society. There’s a media pressure, too. All the media [portray] are perfect people and that seeps into young people’s consciousness to become a goal,” Smith stated.

Peer pressure is huge in teenland, where constant teasing or even a single barbed comment about another’s appearance can wound. (ANI)