AsiaNews Magazine Jan10-16,2014 ( Jan 1-7,2014) | Page 55

COVER STORY

January 10-16, 2014

the complexes you might have
about your appearance,” said
Yoo Hye-rin, a second-year high
school student. She added that
the common opinion among her
peers is that eyelid surgeries aren’t
a big deal, as they are so common.
Cosmetic procedures have also
come to be performed in an increasingly wider range of medical disciplines.
A growing number of ophthalmologists offer eyelid surgeries,
while many dentists have opted
to specialise in orthodontics and
teeth whitening to boost their
income. Some dentists even perform “double-jaw” surgery, in
which the jawbones are cut, realigned and then reset to create
a narrow jawline. Despite the
dangers and the long recovery
period the procedure requires,
an estimated 5,000 double-jaw
surgeries are performed in Korea
each year.

RAPID EXPANSION OF
PLASTIC SURGERY
Such developments are even
affecting the considerations of
medical students when they select their specialties. Plastic
surgery, once among the most
sought-after specialties because
of the field’s high earning potential, is falling in popularity.
“Becoming a plastic surgeon is
no longer the way to go for medical students because, for one
thing, there’s no guarantee that
(cosmetic surgery) specialists are
better than other doctors at what
they do,” said Lah Jin-hyeon, a
25-year-old intern doctor said.
For Korean society in general, however, plastic surgery is
more popular than ever and has
even come to be a normal means
of improving one’s “spec”. Spec,
short for specifications, is used
in Korea to refer to an individu-

al’s qualifications, which are now
considered to include physical
attractiveness.
“I think getting cosmetic surgery helped a lot in finding a
job,” a 29-year-old female accountant said, declining to be
named. Although she graduated
from a university ranked among
the global top 10, she says that
she never felt fully confident before she had a number of procedures done. Since graduating
from university in 2007, she has
had surgery on her eyelids and
nose. She has also had braces and
had two embedded wisdom teeth
removed. She believes that these
procedures have made the shape
of her face more attractive.
“It’s not that I considered myself
to be horrendous, but I thought
that if I was better looking it
couldn’t hurt. Who doesn’t like a
good-looking person? I have to say
that I’d hire the better-looking can-