Patients borrow millions to pay for cosmetic surgery

PATIENTS are borrowing millions of pounds every year to pay for cosmetic surgery operations, a new survey has found.

According to figures from the supermarket giant, Sainsburys, they loaned as much as £5million in the last 12 months to people keen to fund their plastic surgery.

But while the popularity of cosmetic operations is soaring, experts and lawyers have warned that so is consumer dissatisfaction with the results.

Surgeons have reported a rise in the number of 'revision' operations they are being asked to carry out by patients disappointed with their cosmetic surgery.

Naresh Joshi, a surgeon who specialises in eyelid surgery at the Cromwell Hospital, London, estimates that around 15 per cent of his work is now correcting operations, such as reversing the 'round eye' appearance after lower-eyelid surgery.

Others say an increase in revision surgery is a result of operations which have gone wrong, especially those carried out abroad.

According to a report by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, one third of surgeons carried out 'much more' repair work than five years ago, with 44 per cent of surgeons claiming to have seen up to five dissatisfied patients each in the past year.

Clinics are also reporting a general trend towards more natural-looking alterations and a move against the American-influenced, Barbie-doll extreme plastic surgery make-overs, which is pushing some patients to have their previous operations reversed.

Tina Lovente, a 38-year-old dental nurse, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, recently paid for a second operation to reverse the nose job procedure she had four years ago.

'After having the procedure done my nose looked too narrow,' she said. 'I regretted it very early on and just thought: 'My God, what have I done to myself?' More people commented that I looked odd than ever before.'

Tanveer Jaleel, partner and founder of TJL Solicitors, said: 'Unfortunately, as the popularity of cosmetic surgery has soared,so has the number of people who feel disappointed or disillusioned with their operations.

'When people have suffered physically as a result of negligent cosmetic surgery, they are entitled to compensation.

'However, we are also seeing more and more patients who, although not injured as a result of their surgery, feel let down and disappointed at the outcome of their operation. These people too, who've effectively been mis-sold their cosmetic surgery, can also seek redress and claim damages.'