Cosmetic Surgery
Cosmetic surgery is a very popular avenue for personal enhancement, as demonstrated by the 11.9 million cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. alone in 2004. As for any operation, cosmetic procedures involve risk, and should therefore not be undertaken lightly. Within the US, critics of plastic surgery note that it is legal for any doctor, regardless of speciality, to perform "cosmetic surgery", but not "plastic surgery". It is thus important to distinguish the terms "plastic surgery" and "cosmetic surgery": Plastic Surgery is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (the only official entity overseeing physician certification in the United States) as the subspecialty dedicated to the surgical repair of defects of form or function -- this includes cosmetic (or aesthetic) surgery, as well as reconstructive surgery. The term "cosmetic surgery" however, simply refers to surgery that is designed to improve cosmetics, or appearance. (One could argue that reconstructive surgery always has some cosmetic aspect to it, because form and function are often both important in plastic surgery repairs.) Thus there is no real art of "cosmetic surgery": it is a catch-all commercial phrase that laypeople understand easily and non-plastic surgeons eagerly use because they are not allowed to use the term "plastic surgery".