We recently read a Reuters report that said that Beverly Hills plastic surgery patients want the eyes of Katie Holmes, the lips of Angelina Jolie and Jessica Biel’s body. While the article goes on to say that patients do not ask for plastic surgery “to look exactly like a specific star,” it suggests they do want “to replicate a distinct feature of various celebrity faces and bodies.”

At Profiles, we wonder what the point is to an article that suggests that patients request the nose of “Grey’s Anatomy” star Katherine Heigl, Keira Knightley’s cheeks, and skin like Paris Hilton. In most cases this is neither possible nor, even more importantly, desirable.

What is important for patients to know is that plastic surgery is not like sculpting; human bone structure and tissue is not like metal or clay that can be molded to any shape we desire. And even if it were, even Brad Pitt’s nose on David Beckham’s face can appear off-putting and abnormal. The point is that in order to give you a beautiful and natural look, your surgery should be tailored to your individual facial characteristics.

At Profiles, we think it’s important that we are honest with you regarding what is possible and that we help guide you in what is desirable. While we do appreciate patients who bring pictures that help show the characteristic they are trying to achieve, we find that our state of the art computer imaging allows us to better communicate what we can achieve with surgery and this, in turn, allows patients to fine tune the details that they want us to be aware of in doing their surgery. As a result, we find our patients are well educated about what they can expect and come out of surgery happy knowing that we achieved what we said we could.

In reading the answers of my colleagues, it has become clear that our practices and experiences with patients are certainly different.  Yesterday, I was given an opportunity to answer this very question in an interview filmed for a documentary film regarding celebrity obsession.

Although this is not the norm, I have certainly had requests from patients in my practice who wish to have features of certain public figures.  I have had several patients bring pictures of Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian, and others to request features of their cosmetic procedures to result in similar features to these celebrities.  In most cases, discussions of celebrity features have helped to foster an understanding between the patient and myself regarding their "aesthetic ideal", or what they consider to be beautiful.  These discussions must always include the critical evaluation of real beofore and after pictures of the consulting surgeon. 

It is very important to realize the limitations of what surgeons can and cannot acheive with a given patient's features.  It is also important to realize that a mere transplant of one person's features on another person's face is not desireable.  In consultations for cosmetic procedures, much time is devoted to facial analysis, and to teaching the principals of acheiving facial harmony through cosmetic surgery, and I do beleive that features of public figures can often serve as a useful refference point.

In rare cases, I have had very clear and firm requests to acheive results strongly resembling features of a public figure.  In these cases there is often a misunderstanding, on the patient's part, of what is realistic and even desirable as an outcome for cosmetic surgery.  These patients are often advised to rethink thier wishes in a more realistic fashion, or completely avoid cosmetic procedures, particularly surgery, to avoid grave dissapointment.

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Patients do very occasionally come into our Beverly Hills office and ask to look like a certain celebrity.

Plastic surgeons will typically explain that aspects of the patient's appearance can be improved but it is not realistic to make a patient look like somebody else.

Celebrities are often very beautiful people.  They often have an unusual combination of beautiful features, most natural, some "enhanced".  This combination of features makes them beautiful. 

We use the same techniques that we use on celebrities on non-celebrities.  Still, our goal is to produce a more beautiful or handsome version of the individual, not to make them look completely different and full of surgical artifact.

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