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'Instant' plastic surgery popular, but not trouble-free

TOKYO — A relatively cheap and quick form of plastic surgery is becoming popular in Japan but the incidence of trouble following such surgery is increasing, prompting medical experts to raise the alarm.

In the recent past, most of the customers at plastic surgery clinics were young women wishing to change their features, such as having the shape of their nose altered or a fold put in their eyelids. Nowadays, however, older women and even some men are going for the new treatment.

Fumihiko Umezawa is the director of Jujin Hospital in Tokyo, one of the long-established plastic surgery clinics, which claims to have launched "instant" plastic surgery without the use of scalpels five or six years ago.

Umezawa seems to regard the "instant" surgery as a tryout before customers opt for more expensive "permanent" plastic surgery.

"A more beautiful face and figure eventually benefit you. But with the quick method, your face will return to what it was after a few months. People who like the result should then undergo full-scale plastic surgery," Umezawa said.

The "instant" surgery usually costs 100,000 yen, which the promoters say is what some high-quality cosmetics cost.

To change the shape of a nose or remove crow's feet, hyaluronic acid and other substances are injected.

Attracting attention recently is a method to treat wrinkles in the forehead and eyebrows by using a protein made from a toxin in the botulinus bacteria to paralyze the muscle that controls the wrinkles.

New methods to create supple skin by applying a laser have also been developed one after another, but the effects do not last long — for six months to one year at the longest.

Despite the short life of the effects, quite a few people visit plastic surgery clinics before taking their pictures for driver's licenses or attending marriage ceremonies. Men often seek to have unsightly hair or skin blotches removed.

According to a survey carried out this year by cosmetics maker Kose Corp covering about 650 women aged between 14 and 64 in the Tokyo metropolitan area, 12.6% of those surveyed said they have no objection to plastic surgery. That was slightly lower than the percentage in the same survey last year but it stayed in double-digit figures for the third straight year.

A Kose official said, "Plastic surgery was once a fad, but now it has become rooted among women."

In Japan, the use of hyaluronic acid and botulin toxin is not officially permitted for plastic surgery, but the health ministry allows doctors to decide whether they can be used or not.

"There have been serious side-effects in the past, such as the stiffening of places where substances regarded as harmless were injected several years before," said Kitaro Omori, president of the Japan Plastic Surgery Association.

A sharp increase has been noted in the past two years in the number of people consulting the National Consumer Affairs Center about plastic surgery. Complaints include internal bleeding after surgery to make folds in eyelids and blisters after the removal of wrinkles with a laser.

An official at the center, however, merely said, "People should fully check the reputation of clinics before going there." (Kyodo News)

December 29, 2003