VIEWPOINT Bogus Botox bummer Cosmetic surgery is a frivolous effort to stave off aging BY DANIEL T. WEAVER For The Sunday Gazette
While I sometimes sympathize with people who have run afoul of the law, I have no sympathy for Albany-based The Plastic Surgery Group, its surgeons and other employees who pleaded guilty to misleading patients by using a Botox substitute, all while the patients thought they were getting the real thing. On the other hand, I have little sympathy for most of the 151 patients who were misled but not injured by the substitute. I say most of the patients, because some people are treated with Botox for medical problems like uncontrollable blinking, misaligned eyes and cervical dystonia, a condition that causes severe contractions of neck and shoulder muscles. I don’t have a problem with the use of Botox for medical conditions. It’s using Botox for the temporary removal of wrinkles that I find troubling. Indeed, the whole concept of cosmetic plastic surgery for staving off the effects of old age is repugnant. Obviously, in America people have the right to spend their money anyway they chose, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it or keep quiet about it. It used to be that only Hollywood stars had cosmetic surgery, but now middle-class John and Jane Doe from Clifton Park, Schenectady and all across America are getting their tummies tucked, faces lifted, flat chests pumped up, sagging butts lifted, pecs augmented and wrinkles ironed out. THE ‘D’ WORD Life has plowed several furrows across my brow. When I see them in the mirror, it is a reminder that I am getting old. Who wants to be reminded that they are getting old, especially when what comes next is, is . . . uh . . . uh passing over, uh ... uh passing away . . . uh — death? There I said it — the “D” word. The word no one wants to hear about or talk about anymore, to the point that some housing developments have replaced “Dead End” signs with signs that say no outlet. Of course, I am all for people getting reconstructive and cosmetic surgery if they have been burned, have a birth defect or some medical condition. But that’s not why most people are getting plastic surgery. Most Americans are going to plastic surgeons because they are running as fast as they can away from old age. And they equally fear the sounds of the hounds of hell that come with it — the sound of a skeleton in a black, hooded robe, reaping wheat. While desperate housewives in America are getting mommy makeovers, thousands of Africans wait helplessly for plastic surgery to deal with real problems like cleft palates, genital mutilation, effects of the tropical flesh-eating disease Buruli Ulcer, effects of the sun on millions of African albinos, and so on. ...............................>>>>..........................................>>>>............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03100&AppName=1
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