A recent study by Fortunato et al21 surveyed patients who underwent a mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction over a 10-year period. The results of the 328 patients revealed that emotional and social functioning scores improved significantly in the cohort that underwent breast reconstruction after a mastectomy compared to the cohort that did not undergo a reconstruction. 21 Despite this finding, 21% of the patients were dissatisfied with their reconstruction or regretted their decision to perform it, 21 regret for the decision based on the type of breast reconstruction was not evaluated. Anthony Youn, a board-certified plastic surgeon and author of “The Age Fix,” told HuffPost that teens are becoming more specific about what they want done, thanks to the Internet.
Anthony Youn, a board-certified plastic surgeon and author of The Age Fix, told HuffPost that teens are becoming more specific about what they want is done, thanks to the Internet.Post-surgical
dissatisfaction refers to the feelings of unhappiness or discontent that some people may experience after undergoing a plastic surgery procedure. Compared to medically necessary health care decisions (which are not yet immune to regret for making a decision), elective healthcare decisions are especially vulnerable to retrospective review and regret from both patients and surgeons. By learning from the experiences of those who have regretted making plastic surgery decisions, future patients can gain the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions and avoid similar disappointments and regrets. On his popular YouTube channel, Ruiz often shares his complicated feelings about plastic surgery, hoping that young women will take it as a cautionary tale.
While plastic surgery can provide individuals with the desired physical changes, it's essential to recognize that not all surgical outcomes align with patient expectations. Rod Rohrich, a plastic surgeon at the Dallas Institute of Plastic Surgery, is trying to find out which adolescent patients see themselves and which do so because of cultural or parental pressure. Plastic surgery procedures that are commonly performed on adolescents for medical reasons or because bullying has become relentless include breast reduction surgeries for teenagers with back, neck and shoulder pain, some nose operations, and surgery to place pins in the ears. Patients who undergo surgery to meet the expectations of other people, such as partners or friends, rather than to meet their own personal wants and needs, are at greater risk of regret. Inadequate communication between the patient and the plastic surgeon can contribute to misunderstanding and disappointment, further aggravating feelings of regret.
Zhong et al13 found that regret was significantly reduced when participants were satisfied with the preoperative advice they had received from their plastic surgeon. People undergo plastic surgery in the hope of improving their physical appearance and increasing their self-confidence. A study conducted among plastic surgery patients revealed that approximately 20% of the participants reported some degree of dissatisfaction afterwards of the procedure. However, recognizing the existence of this phenomenon is essential to further explore the factors that influence regret in plastic surgery patients and to develop strategies to effectively address and manage post-surgical dissatisfaction.
