Plastic is the new perfect in Saudi Arabia. No physical infelicity is too great or too small that it cannot be adjusted by a plastic surgeon. Bid farewell to a blobby nose or writhing wrinkles; say adieu to troublesome poigné es d’amour. Say hello to liposuction, face-lift and breast enhancement, just three of the procedures that can fix the physically flawed or put the brakes on the steady encroachment of age. There has been a surge in the demand for plastic surgery from the women of the Kingdom. Perfection, or at least a stab at it, as purveyed by the media, and especially the extravagant claims of satellite TV channels, has never seemed more attainable.
However, professor Mohammed Eed, president of the Saudi Association of Plastic Surgeons, was quite emphatic when he explained the differences between plastic and cosmetic surgery.
“Cosmetic surgery is quite a small part of plastic surgery. It could really be called reconstructive surgery — rebuilding tissue, repairing chronic burns, congenital malformation and so on. Cosmetic surgery, on the other hand, has boomed in recent decades, and the demand is getting higher and higher. It’s human nature to want the best of everything, and that includes beauty.”
Yet many women, and increasing numbers of young girls, are obsessed with their appearance, and reality TV programs such as “Extreme Makeover”, “The Swan” and “Dr 90210” fuel the low self-esteem of many at the same time as offering a solution.
Needless to say, once a patient — or perhaps one should say “client”, since cosmetic surgery is entirely voluntary — has taken the plunge, where does she (and it is nearly always she) stop? And why should she want to? The pursuit of this particular form of personal satisfaction can become like a drug, although it might be thought that most Saudi women are unlikely to go as far as the French performance artiste Orlan, who has endured any number of operations in the cause of her extreme, occasionally grotesque art.
Dr. Eed, understandably, is wary of discussing cosmetic surgery in the same breath as addiction. He believes that a woman becomes “bold”. More than one operation “does not harm the body, especially with the latest advances in surgical and anesthetic techniques.” However, he warned that “not consulting the right surgeon could lead to complications.”
Samer Arar, professor of psychology at King Abdul Aziz University, acknowledges the fact that “women love to show their beauty”; and, it has to be admitted, a lot of women in the Kingdom have the means to improve it. Cosmetic surgery is a booming business, and with a nose job costing anything between SR5,000 and SR10,000, “the income is high”, professor Arar says, rather stating the obvious. “There are always promotions for women’s beauty. This increases the demand, thus increasing the income,” Arar explained, displaying a firm command of supply-and-demand economics before loftily changing tack with the wag of an admonitory finger: “Our culture has become one that depends on materialism rather than inner beauty or morals.”
Take the example of Hind Ghazi, a young woman of 27, who has had multiple operations to reshape her body. She started with a gastric lap-band, and did indeed lose weight, although the operation did not get rid of unsightly excess fat. So, back to the theater for her. “I had a couple of liposuctions all over my body, even my back.” But nothing ventured, nothing gained, and young Ghazi raised her game with a hand lift, a tummy tuck, several more liposuctions and a breast lift. “I am happy with the results, otherwise I would not be repeating the operations,” she confided, although she kept quiet about the cost and the precise number of procedures she had had.
It goes without saying that there are risks involved in plastic surgery and in the choice of surgeon. Dr. Fayez Abdul Baqi, consultant plastic surgeon at the Obagi medical center in Jeddah, advises thorough preparation from the client, who “should understand all the complications. There are no guarantees that the patient is going to be fully satisfied with the changes after the procedure. A lot depends on the patient’s psychological preparation.”
It helps enormously if the surgeon understands his patient’s motivation. As Dr. Tawfeik Al-Yafi, another consultant surgeon, explains: “The doctor should also act as psychological consultant,” adding that doctors should form their judgments on whether the client really needs the operation or is doing it for some other reason.
Plastic surgery is for all age groups. Cosmetic surgery, on the other hand, tends to have specific procedures that are taken up by particular age groups. For the young, between the ages of 15 and 25, “the most common operation is the rhinoplasty, or nose job,” says Dr. Eed. “Also breast augmentation and lifts for women and hair implants for men. Liposuction, however, comes as the highest demand from all age groups,” he says, before sternly adding that it is never a procedure for losing weight or a quick-fix alternative to exercise or diet; it is a form of body reshaping and the amount of fat removed varies by doctor, method and patient.
Dr. Al-Yafi agrees that liposuction, rather than breast enhancement, is probably the most common cosmetic operation. Take the example of Lama Al-Ahmed, a young woman of 25, who had liposuction three years ago. “This operation should only be done to people with a perfect figure but who need some contouring,” she said. “I just went through with the procedure and didn’t notice any difference because I had needed to lose some weight first.” But she added, rather sinisterly, that if she now put on weight again, fat would appear on other areas, such as her hands or her back.
These days, however, with the advances in surgical techniques the degree of risk is significantly reduced, but the patient still has to be aware of what she is letting herself in for and to be informed.
As Dr. Mamdooh Ashy, consultant plastic surgeon at a private clinic in Jeddah, explains: “There are more than 50 plastic surgery procedures. Some breast augmentations are performed with putting silicon inside the breast. With such procedures, the silicon should be changed every 10 years to avoid any complications.”
Be warned, however, Dr. Ashy also explained how some side effects are caused by unnatural materials for face-filler injections.
“Fillers are sometimes done by nurses or cosmetics experts and not by doctors. This might be dangerous. I don’t usually recommend silicon fillers in the nose or breast because they cause fibrosis around the area after 10 or 15 years.”
Look at Muna Suleiman, 26. She had a breast lift six years ago, after losing a lot of weight. “I much prefer lift to silicon,” she says firmly, and there have been no messy side effects, leaving her pert and happy. Well, at least she was for the first year after the operation. “Now it changed a bit and I don’t mind going through another procedure or even breast augmentation.”
And that is how it all starts.