lesions

The majority of our everyday communication requires us to look into faces and use our own face to talk, read facial expressions and generally convey and decipher meaning behind the words we say to one another. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that we want our faces to look their best – after all, this is the most central part of our anatomy and it is closely inspected by friends, family and complete strangers every day of our lives. There are many methods to keep our faces looking their best and even to improve on what nature endowed us with. Plastic surgery procedures such as rhinoplasty, face lifts, eyelid surgery as well as non-surgical solutions such as laser skin resurfacing and chemical peels are all aimed at making us looking more beautiful and giving us confidence to face new acquaintances with a smile.

However, for some people plastic surgery goes beyond small improvements to make them appear a bit more youthful. Patients suffering from facial lesions have to deal with stares from passers-by and uncomfortable encounters on a daily basis. As there is no easy way of covering up facial lesions, especially if they are located centrally and over a large area of the face, it is hard to avoid them being noticed. Many people suffering from facial lesions report that they feel a difference in the way they are treated by other people compared to their lesion-free friends. They believe that people who are looking at them are made to feel uncomfortable and are repulsed by their facial lesions and this in turn makes communication awkward and often unpleasant for both parties. Now a study conducted by the John Hopkins School of Medicine suggests that people suffering from facial lesions might be right about other people’s negative perceptions.

In the study 120 random people were asked to look at photos of different faces. The photos varied and included people suffering from small as well as large lesions both pre and post cosmetic plastic surgery. In addition, these photos also included people without any facial lesions at all. The participants of the study were then asked to rate the images on a scale of 0 – 100 keeping in mind a number of criteria including their comfort level when looking at the photos. 0 indicated that they were the least comfortable and 100 indicated that they were completely comfortable with the images shown. The researchers found that although facial lesions certainly had a negative impact on peoples’ comfort level, images of people who have undergone plastic surgery to correct their lesions scored much higher on the comfort scale. The researchers commented: “[The study found that] observers are less comfortable communicating with people who have facial lesions. Surgical reconstruction of facial lesions increased observers’ comfort in conversing with people with facial lesions, an impact that varied with lesion size and location.”

Though patients suffering from facial lesions have a harder time when communicating with people, plastic surgery can offer a solution that will not only make patients feel more confident in their own skin but will also help to positively affect the people they come into contact with in the future.