“We are now in the Far West“. The plastic surgeon Paolo Santanchè“a life dedicated to the profession”, a “consolidated and loyal” clientele, returns to denounce what is “just wrong” in the varied world of beauty retouching: “People who proclaim themselves to be specialists and aren'tself-styled 'VIP surgeons', boasters of 'a thousand operations a year' that not even Pitanguy was able to perform, subjects remade as caricatures who define themselves as self-taught 'because specialization isn't necessary anyway', presumed 'gurus' who pontificate and then cause disasters“. In all of this “I no longer recognize myself”, he explains in an interview with Adnkronos Salute. “And I'm certainly not saying this for fear of competition with me”, he specifies. “I repeat it because I love my job, because too many patients risk their health every day and must be protected.” Instead “in Italy who should control is missing. On paper the laws exist, but in practice they are not respected. The reports? Mine – he reports – fell on deaf ears.”
The number one problem is “false specialists”
Comparing the number of members of trade bodies such as Sicpre (Italian Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) or Aicpe (Italian Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) with the size of the “plethora of operators offering services in the sector in this country” , Santanchè calculates that “
the specialists, those with all the titles in place, if all goes well, will perhaps be half of them“. The traps are triggered via social media: “I go to Instagram and come across cosmetic surgery advertisements. I see a lot”, assures the doctor. Aside from “disgust at the way many advertise themselves, let's stick to the law: if you define yourself as a plastic surgeon or cosmetic surgeon – he warns – you must have a specialization in plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery. There are no valid equivalences, you have to have it, you have to have earned that title. Instead, go and check on the Fnomceo website”, the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, “and you discover that a good part of these gentlemen are not specialists in anything or are specialists in a discipline that has nothing to do with it. How reliable can someone who already presents himself by lying about the qualifications he has be?
“I once tried to make a report to the Medical Association – says Santanchè – but nothing happened, nothing happened. The Orders should protect doctors, in this case specialists from scoundrels. And above all they should protect patients , while my impression is that no one thinks about protecting them. If he doesn't have the tools to defend himself, the patient reads and believes it. The problem is serious”, insists the expert. “Here let's not talk about pranks, let's talk about crimes prosecutable according to the Code of Conduct and according to the law. We are talking about actions punishable by expulsion from the Medical Association and the courts”, urges the surgeon. “Even the Advertising Guarantor, where is he? We are faced with one illegal and immoral advertising, the complete opposite of professional ethics, and no one who does anything. We must stop all this”, is the appeal.
“Aesthetic surgery is a branch of medicine – explains Santanchè – it is a delicate thing, you cannot leave it in the hands of just anyone, to people without qualifications and without scruples who advertise with impunity treatments that are neither in heaven nor on earth. Another something that patients should also understand, and I always try to convey it when I talk to them, is that beyond ability and preparation there is also an ethical discussion to be had. Beware of those who make a business out of it“, warns the specialist, to “those who perhaps have dozens of studios in all regions. The more commercial the surgeon, the less professional he is likely to be. When I operate on a patient, how do I follow him if immediately afterwards I am miles away operating on another? If I'm a good surgeon, people get there on their own. If instead I have to go around Italy looking for patients, perhaps it's because I don't have all this skill”, reflects the expert.
“'It's not done anymore the facelift', say others, many of those who practice aesthetic medicine. But let's think for a moment”, invites the specialist: “The moment a technique is actually invented that can truly replace a specific surgery, in that same instant, automatically, surgery in that field ceases to make sense to exist. It happened for example with the lifting of forehead wrinkles, which has obviously no longer been done since Botox arrived. It is proof that you do not want to deceive the patient by operating on him at all costs. It's not that the surgeon necessarily wants to do the surgery if there is a simpler and more comfortable safe treatment. If he instead wants to do it, if he continues to propose it as the best way – says Santanchè – it's because the alternative isn't there yet.”
The business of aesthetic tourism is growing: “A plague”
A return plane ticket and in between, all inclusive, together with the hotel stay and guided tours to discover the area, also the beauty touch-up of your dreams. Rejuvenated face, new breasts, sculpted belly and buttocks, perfect hair and teeth. “But then you get home and it's painful.” Among the commuters of aesthetic tourism abroad “we observe more and more often scary complications“, says the surgeon. “They come with necrosis to the breast or abdomen, prosthesis out of placescalp infections”, lists the specialist “just to name a few”. The phenomenon of holiday packages with low cost interventions – in recent days in the spotlight across the Channel where the UK authorities responsible for advertising have launched alerts, started monitoring and set rules, as reported by the 'Guardian' – in Italy too “in recent times it is absolutely growing and is becoming a plague”, report to the doctor.
“We see it every day – he explains – when we compare ourselves with specialists: the absurd damages for which they ask us for help are multiplying”. From Albania to Turkey, up to more exotic destinations ranging from Mexico to Colombia or Thailand, there are many countries in which dedicated agencies fuel an increasingly thriving business. “If someone left and came back happy – reasons Santanché – it would be at most unpleasant for those who work here, but it would end there. The problem, however, is that Even abroad there are 'good' and 'bad'“. And so it happens that we return to base, when things go well, “with unsatisfactory results which force us to have to undergo surgery again and end up having to pay twice”, but when things go badly “with complications which lead to serious health risksthings that end up in the emergency room for, to burden the National Health Service which doesn't seem to me to need this too.”
“We're talking about regulation influencer advertising? Well, let it be known then – the surgeon points out – that social media is full of people who have gone to get their noses, lips or other things done in Turkey, Albania or elsewhere, and who advertise”. Aesthetic tourism “is a phenomenon that has many facets and that requires targeted controls, because in the end – warns Santanchè – patient protection is in everyone's interest”.
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