Investigating the appearance quality of cosmetic surgery victims and related factors

Appearance quality, which means the perception of each person about their body image and the level of satisfaction with this situation, is one of the important issues in the field of cosmetic surgery, and if it is not fulfilled, it leads to a complaint and a case is raised in the forensic medical commissions of the province.

This study was aimed to investigate the sociological improvement of appearance quality in cosmetic surgery victims in forensic medical commissions of Tehran province.

In this cross-sectional study, 276 cosmetic surgery victims whom medical malpractice was confirmed twice in 2018 and 2019 by the Forensic Medical Commissions of Tehran Province were included. A researcher-made questionnaire generated from a qualitative study on 24 individuals was used to assess the appearance quality in terms of satisfaction with appearance and life.

The majority of participants were in the 28-37 years age group (43.1%). The mean score of satisfaction with appearance was 11.18±3.60, and the mean score of satisfaction with life was 17.41±6.68. In total, the mean appearance quality was 28.59±8.67. There was a significant relationship between appearance quality and cosmetic surgery complaints (P<0.001) (r=-0.395). There was a significant relationship between the quality of appearance with dissatisfaction with the surgery (P<0.001) (r=-0.330) and dissatisfaction with the case handling process (P<0.006) (r=-0.314).

According to the study, most people who had cosmetic surgery were only slightly satisfied with their life and appearance. They believed surgery would improve their living conditions and social interactions, but actually faced challenges in family, finances, and health. If patients experience in the field of appearance quality increase, complaints from cosmetic surgeon decrease in medical commissions. Unemployed and housewives had the highest number of complaints, while self-employed people had the lowest.