The interface between aesthetic surgery, psychiatry and the law: Some practical advice

Abstract

It is unfortunate that in the lengthy process of surgical education, most plastic surgeons fail to acquire any real sense of the basic criteria for patient selection, nor the interface between aesthetic surgery and psychiatry. It takes some experience to develop a real sense of who is and who is not appropriately motivated for, what is after all, a voluntary anatomical revision [1]. Virtually all such surgeons emerge into the real world filled with the latest techniques on the cutting edge of their specialty. However, most have only a vague concept of how to recognize the candidate for a facelift who will benefit from the procedure anatomically and psychologically from the one who will be unhappy no matter the quality of improvement. © Springer-Verlag 2007.