Li Shirong
Write | Li Shirong, Medical Aesthetics and Aesthetics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association
With the development of China's economy, the level of national income continues to increase, and the broad masses of the people have put forward higher demands for quality of life, and medical beauty is one of the needs. According to the data released by the China Prospective Industry Research Institute, the scale of China's medical beauty market reached 176.9 billion yuan in 2019, a growth rate higher than that of the same period in the world, but at the same time of rapid development, there have also been many problems, which seriously affected the healthy development of medical beauty. The recently reported news event of "16-year-old girl 60 plastic surgeries in 3 years, spending 4 million yuan" is the epitome of many chaos. Here, as the chairman of the Medical Aesthetics and Cosmetology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, combined with my own decades of clinical experience, the author analyzes this negative medical aesthetic event in depth in order to better establish the social atmosphere of healthy medical aesthetics, return medical aesthetics to the essence of medical treatment, and thus promote the healthy development of the medical aesthetic industry.
In-depth analysis of negative medical aesthetic events
Promote the healthy development of the medical aesthetic industry
Medical beauty, referred to as medical beauty, refers to the use of surgery, drugs, medical devices and other traumatic or irreversible medical technology methods to repair or reshape the human appearance and the shape of various parts of the human body. Both surgical and non-surgical (micro-plastic) categories belong to the category of aesthetics. Whether it is micro-plastic surgery or surgery, the essence is a medical behavior for the purpose of beauty, it is an operation with certain risks, it must be professionally trained and professionally qualified medical personnel to work in a correspondingly qualified institution, and the entire treatment process must be carried out in accordance with strict medical procedures to avoid risks to the greatest extent. At present, many of the negative medical aesthetic incidents that have failed plastic surgery and beauty have been exposed, and the vast majority of the initiators are unqualified "black medical beauty institutions". Despite the continuous strengthening of industry supervision, due to the drive of interests, black medical beauty institutions are still rampant, which seriously affects the health of beauty seekers and the healthy development of the medical beauty industry.
The healthy development of the medical aesthetic industry is inseparable from medical aesthetic doctors and beauty seekers with good aesthetics. A doctor who does not have the basic skills of aesthetics and does not have good aesthetic qualities cannot make good "works". For beauty seekers, health and virtue are the soul of beauty, and having the correct "three views" and reasonable expectations will lead to a long-term healthy and happy life after surgery. Bacon once said that beauty without virtue is fleeting. Despite the diversity and individualization of aesthetics, the basic principles of aesthetics are consistent, namely that physical and mental health is the foundation of beauty. Departing from the basic principles, violating the common sense of life, and affecting the aesthetics of physical health, it is doomed to be non-mainstream and non-permanent, and even pathological. With the rapid development of the medical beauty industry, medical beauty practitioners can not be money-oriented, at the expense of the health of beauty seekers, blindly cater to the deformed aesthetics of a small number of beauty seekers, promote the bad speculative values of "appearance determines everything", and should take on the responsibility of educating and guiding the majority of beauty seekers to correctly aesthetics and rational consumption, and establish a new atmosphere of healthy medical beauty, thereby promoting the healthy development of the industry. This news event is the comprehensive result of the beauty seeker blindly following the deformed aesthetic, the practitioners putting money first, and disregarding the physical and mental health of the beauty seeker.
The majority of medical aesthetic practitioners should also recognize the importance of the bio-psycho-social medical model in the medical aesthetic industry. Interests are paramount, ignoring the assessment of the mental health status of beauty seekers, amplifying treatment indications, and even exaggerating the effect and inducing consumption are important reasons for a large number of disputes. Beauty seekers with mental health, reasonable expectations, and healthy optimism are the adaptable groups for medical beauty. Evaluate mental health, screen out mental and psychological disorders, and strictly control the indications for surgery, so as to avoid unnecessary medical disputes and ensure the healthy development of medical aesthetics. Among the mental illnesses associated with medical aesthetics, body image disorder is the most common. If the beauty seeker blames himself for his or her appearance irrationally, feels uncomfortable, embarrassing, and urgently and endlessly takes measures to change, it is very likely to suffer from body image disorder, which is a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which needs psychological counseling, serious and even needs drug treatment, simple medical and aesthetic surgery can not solve the problem, but easy to lead to disputes. The protagonist of this news event is likely to be a patient with body image disorder, and the endless cosmetic surgery not only cannot treat the disease, but will cause serious physical and mental harm to the patient and delay the condition. This news event reflects the lack of understanding of the bio-psycho-social medical model by some medical aesthetic practitioners, especially the lack of understanding of psychological problems. Therefore, at present, we should sum up experience, formulate norms, strengthen the standardized training of practitioners, improve the quality of industry personnel, and promote the healthy development of medical aesthetics. The author's forthcoming book "History of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery in China" has made an important exploration and historical summary in this regard.
The history of the development of China's medical aesthetic industry
Looking back at the history of the development of China's medical aesthetic industry, as early as November 5, 1835, in the Ophthalmology Medical Bureau, bo driving in China's first eyelid varus correction surgery opened a new era in the history of Chinese aesthetic plastic surgery. After the founding of New China, Song Ruyao, Zhang Disheng, Wang Liangneng and Zhu Hongyin, four founders of plastic surgery, have made great contributions to the construction and development of China's plastic surgery and beauty profession. After meeting the basic requirements of restoration and reconstruction, plastic surgery puts forward higher aesthetic requirements, nurturing and promoting the development of aesthetic surgery. In 1994, "Medical Beauty" was officially listed as a "first-level diagnosis and treatment subject" of medical institutions; in 2002, China defined "medical beauty attending physician" and basic access standards for the first time, and China's medical aesthetic industry gradually moved from the start-up stage and development period to a further mature period. The expansion of the market has promoted the rapid development of medical aesthetic products and technologies, and gradually caught up with the world level. In 2008, Bloomage Biologics, China's first hyaluronic acid pharmaceutical enterprise, was listed on the Hong Kong stock market; in 2009, the self-regulatory organization of the medical beauty industry - China Plastic Surgery and Beauty Association was established; in 2013, a number of medical beauty APP appeared one after another, with the development of Internet technology, the "Internet + medical beauty" model was gradually formed, promoting the wide popularization of medical aesthetic knowledge, cultivating potential customers, and improving industry transparency; after 2014, new oxygen and other medical beauty platforms have completed multiple rounds of financing, and the "Internet + medical beauty" model has gradually scaled up In April 2019, Oxygen was listed on the U.S. stock market, becoming China's first listed Internet medical aesthetic platform, marking the maturity of China's medical aesthetic industry; the establishment of Xingrong Plastic Surgery Hospital in 2019 is a sign of the scale and standardization of China's medical aesthetic private hospitals, and the model of integrating medical education and research has set up an industry development direction for the development of medical aesthetic private hospitals.
Achievements and challenges in the development of the medical aesthetic industry
After decades of development, medical aesthetic technology and products have made great progress. From the single introduction of foreign products to the emergence of iconic enterprises such as Bloomage Biology, product quality and scientific research capabilities have reached the international level. Great progress has been made in the repair and reconstruction of plastic surgery, clinical surgical innovation and basic research in aesthetic surgery, and some fields have reached the international advanced level. Genital plastic surgery, rhinoplasty, oculoplastic surgery, fat grafting, anti-aging and other fields, from a single imitation and introduction of foreign surgical methods, to the characteristics of the Oriental race, from the basic, anatomy, clinical, tissue engineering and other aspects of research, put forward their own views and launched international exchanges, initially formed a multidisciplinary joint and transformation system, put forward and constructed a suitable for Asian plastic surgery theory and clinical system, has achieved remarkable results.
Nevertheless, there are still limitations in the current development of medical technology. There is still a lot of room and inadequacy in basic research closely related to medical aesthetics. For example, the mechanism of human aging; the basic research on the biology, compatibility, safety and economy of tissue grafts; the relationship between the scar formation mechanism and the postoperative effect of cosmetic surgery; the long-term changes in the body after autologous cartilage and allogeneic cartilage transplantation. In addition, the ethical issues that emerge in the development of technology are also a new challenge. Such as the management of fat-derived stem cells, the application and source of allogeneic rib cartilage, the specification of stem cell products, the ethical evaluation of some new technologies, the standardization of the indications for adolescent cosmetic surgery, the psychological evaluation of patients in the beauty population, and so on.
Summary
Behind the prosperity of the huge medical beauty market is the shortage of professional plastic surgeons, which has also led to the chaos of mixed industry practitioners and poor quality of some practitioners. Driven by interests, false publicity, cross-professional practice, excessive marketing, technology without bottom line beautification, alternative medical beauty scalpers, medical trust chaos, black medical beauty and other chaos have caused a great negative impact on the standardization, orderliness and scientificization of the development of medical beauty, and seriously affected the healthy development of the medical aesthetic industry. Under the new situation, we should strengthen industry supervision, standardize the training of talents, build and cultivate private benchmarking enterprises with plastic surgery technology, legal compliance and standardized practice in public hospitals such as Xingrong Plastic Surgery Hospital, give full play to the talents and professional advantages of plastic surgery in public hospitals, strengthen education and science publicity, cultivate healthy aesthetics, establish a social atmosphere of healthy medical aesthetics, return to the essence of medical treatment, and promote the healthy development of the entire medical aesthetic industry, so as to avoid similar to "16-year-old girls have 3 years of plastic surgery 60 times and spend 4 million yuan" Tragedy happens.
Editor: Sun Yangpeng
Typography: Gao Ji
China Medical Information Herald, No. 6, 2021, 16th Edition