Roundtable Discussion At Beverly Wilshire Medical Centre

The Roundtable Discussion at Beverly Wilshire Medical Centre last month raised some pertinent questions regarding aesthetic treatments. Malaysia isn’t as into such treatments as other Asian countries such as South Korea and China but we are catching up as we have access to information on the Internet and magazines such as Cosmetic Surgery & Beauty are available here.

It doesn’t have to be cosmetic surgery to change a person’s appearance. With advanced technologies in aesthetic treatments, these can do a lot in enhancing a person’s looks. Want fuller lips? Dermal fillers can do that. Want to erase fine lines and crows’ feet? A dose of Botox is just the thing and you don’t even need to take leave from work for all that as these procedures generally take less than half an hour. You even have time to grab lunch.

I can’t remember what the other bloggers said during the Roundtable Discussion. I can only remember what I was thinking as each question was posed in the same order as below.

This is a very subjective question since we all have our own notion of where we draw the line. For some people, it’s never too much, not even when they start to look like Jocelyn Wildenstein or “The Bride of Wildenstein”, a woman well and truly addicted to plastic surgery. Then again, you woudn’t want to look like Donatella Versace either as she looks like she has had an extensive amount of Botox injected as well as dermal fillers on her lips. You could have a lot of money but still not look good even when you’ve had plastic surgery and/or aesthetic work done. At the end of the day, I am sure most people who opt for such treatments don’t want to look as if they have had work done. They want to look natural but a more improved version of themselves. Personally I wouldn’t consider plastic surgery even if I had the spare cash. The risks are just too great but to each his own. Everyone has their own definition of what enhancements are enough.

Since I was very young, I’ve known about Face Mapping or “mien shiang” which means reading the face. My grandmother had this thick book which contained information on choosing good dates for all kinds of occasions, be it starting renovation on a house or opening a shop. There was also a section on face mapping like the position of moles on the face represented something in a person’s life. Fascinating stuff, I am sure I still have that book somewhere. Many people, especially Chinese believe that certain facial features will influence their wealth/career/marriage/life. Do I believe in this? No, I don’t. A rich man is likely to have the same features as someone lower down the social ladder. I always read about people reading the features of people who are already wealthy. It’s easy to do that when the person has already made it. Why not read the features of the ordinary man and predict how far he is likely to go?

There’s nothing wrong with undergoing aesthetic treatments to gain more confidence. A nip here and a tuck there may make all the difference to a person’s level of confidence. There are jobs where people have to constantly look good. There’s a lot of pressure, especially nowadays, for people to look the best they can. There are bound to be people who are very insecure about their looks so if having a little aesthetic work done can help them gain more confidence in themselves, then it may just give a boost to their career.

I’m so not into the K-pop androgynous boy band look or the cuter-than-Barbie girl band look. They all look the same to me, as if they all went to the same plastic surgery or aesthetic clinic. There seems to be a guaranteed for success look for members of any K-pop boy or girl band but I can’t imagine that any right-thinking female would want to consider a K-pop boy band member as their future life partner as the boy would be spending much more time in the bathroom applying eyeliner.

If you have any thoughts on the questions posed, chime in.