What Do Plastic Surgery Pictures Look Like?
By By Jeff Lakie 

The plastic surgery pictures usually come in pairs. One shot is taken before the operation, the other - after it. You can see them almost at every plastic surgery website and finding them is not a problem. Trouble begins when you want to use them to make up your mind about the results of the plastic surgery you want to have.

Which plastic surgery pictures are the good ones?

It is very easy to retouch these pictures. And I'm not talking only about using Adobe Photoshop - such plain dishonesty won't work in the long run. But plastic surgery pictures can be taken in such way that they will hide more than they will show. Look only for the pictures that have the qualities described below:

(1) There should be several plastic surgery pictures of one patient. They should be taken from different angles to give you better view of what actually has changed.

(2) The patient should not wear any makeup. It is quite common to take “before” shots when patients don't wear any and “after” shots - when they wear it. Such plastic surgery pictures are almost useless.

(3) The lighting should be similar

in both “before” and “after” pictures. Playing with lighting can change things in the plastic surgery pictures just as good as the Acrobat Photoshop.

How can we actually use them?

The first usage is quite obvious: we use plastic surgery pictures to see what we can expect from, for example, breast augmentation. But there is also one more way we can use them. You simply HAVE TO see the plastic surgery pictures of you prospect doctor's patients. Almost all patients in plastic surgery clinics are photographed, so all the photos should be available at the clinic. If they refuse to show them or if they don't match the “good plastic surgery pictures” description (see above), you'd better reconsider your decision. Even if they aren't the effects of doctor's dishonesty, they tell about sloppiness of the clinic's work. If they can't take the proper pictures, how can they perform the serious and delicate surgery?

Jeff Lakie is the founder of Plastic Surgery Resources, a website providing information on cosmetic surgery.