Photos: Below, “The Hills” star Heidi Montag in January, after her 10 recent plastic surgeries. (Photo courtesy of Pacific Coast News) Bottom, Montage before (left) and after (right) the 10 procedures. (Photos by Getty Images and courtesy of ABC). Slide show: “Heidi Montag addicted to plastic surgery.
Related post: This is the first of two posts in which local doctors respond to Heidi Montag’s day-long plastic surgeries.
JUST SAY NO
The news of Heidi Montag’s day-long plastic surgeries aggravates women’s self-image problems, local doctors say.
The doctors were responding to a statement by plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan that women benefit from publicity about the surgeries because it teaches them the extent of Hollywood actresses’ reliance on plastic surgery. The reality-TV actress had 10 procedures ranging from Botox to browlift and from liposuction to chin reduction during an operation that lasted 7 1/2 hours.
As reported in the blog post “Heidi Montag surgeries help women, doc says,” Ryan told People magazine that the Hollywood myth that celebrities look good simply because of diet and exercise contributes to women’s low self-regard. Ryan is seeking to dispel that myth, which “perpetuates body dysmorphic disorder, a condition where a person’s perception of how they look is drastically off base,” American Health and Beauty reported.
Dermatologic surgeon Dr. David Sire of Fullerton challenged Ryan’s position. “Body dysmorphic disorder is a serious and under-diagnosed psychological disorder” that the Heidi Montag surgeries make worse, he said.
“The fact that this may be a prevalent idea in Hollywood merely reinforces the concept that it is OK to perform plastic surgery for perceived physical non-problems to satisfy a psychological problem caused by a distorted self image,” Sire said. “The individual goes through life looking for physical perfection to satisfy a psychological problem which cannot be helped by multiple surgeries. We as surgeons are not helping our patients by performing surgery on these people.”
Doctors should refuse to operate on such patients, said plastic surgeon Dr. Val Lambros of Newport Beach, although he admitted the effect of that refusal would be minimal. He said:
Sometimes giving a person what she wants isn’t the best thing for that person as very few people have an objective idea of how they look. Joan Rivers frequently goes on Larry King and says she looks great — a matter of opinion that many people would disagree with.
People who get multiple procedures done young frequently don’t know when to stop and wind up looking very strange by the time they get into their 40s. I see it all the time. The frightening thing is that they, like Joan Rivers, think they look great. Scary.
If a doctor tells them to stop, they just find someone else to do their surgery.
Plastic surgeon Dr. John Di Saia of San Clemente and Huntington Beach said Ryan’s statements to People magazine were self-promotion rather than charitable.
“I need to stop laughing,” he said. “Dr. Ryan, please. … The reason he did the People piece is that it was for People magazine. Being perceived as a ‘firebrand’ in a national magazine promotes his practice in a massive way. He is not doing a public service announcement or anything. ”
Heidi Montag posts:
