Psychological evaluations before cosmetic surgery is performed on teenagers are very important. Many people do not talk about this. Individuals like to jump ahead and criticize plastic surgery. They say teenagers are too young physically and mentally. When you delve deeper into this you realize that psychological evaluations can prevent many issues associated with plastic surgery. Surgeons should not deny all teenagers the opportunity to receive plastic surgery just because of the fact some teenagers are not mentally fit. When you go to a board certified surgeon, you have a psychological evaluation, and your health records are presented to the surgeon, you should have minimal worries.
These are procedures, when done under the proper circumstances, can improve people’s mindset and the way they feel about themselves. When psychological evaluations are skipped over, serious conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder are overlooked. Gender reassignment surgery for transgender teens are supposed to make them feel like the person they always felt they were. If it is performed and a psychological conditioned is overlooked, it can make patients feel even worse than they felt before the surgery. There is minimal talk about the lack of psychological evaluations in the United States but in the UK they are one step ahead.
They are doing research to perfect their psychological evaluations. It is not mandatory for a surgeon to administer a psychological evaluation before surgery, but maybe after they perfect their system they will push for it to be required. In the United States psychological evaluations should be mandatory before plastic surgery is performed on teenagers and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can help with this because it is their duty to protect the health of Americans. Teenagers receiving plastic surgery when they are mentally ill is anything but healthy. To insure the safety of teenagers without taking away the ability to alter their looks, psychological evaluations before plastic surgery are needed.
