title: [Beautiful, but not happy].
abstract: The chances of success are better for 'beautiful people': a youthful, pretty and symmetrical face with the ideal proportions offers better prospects of social success. However, success does not equal happiness. Television shows such as Make Me Beautiful suggest that aesthetic treatments guarantee increased happiness. Hardly any attention is being paid to the possibility that significant complications may be associated with these treatments, and the potentially unrealistic expectations of the person involved are often totally ignored. Satisfaction with appearance is not easy to achieve and requires more from the physician than just performing a procedure correctly. The patient needs to realise that an aesthetic treatment has its limits in relation to achieving happiness.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus MC, afd. Plastische en Reconstructieve Chirurgie, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. i.mathijssen@erasmusmc.nl
authors.forename: Irene M J
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Mathijssen
mesh_terms: D001504:Beauty; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D013518:Surgery, Plastic / Q000523:psychology*