February 25, 2002 -- If your car needed a paint job and a new fender, would you think it vain to have the car repaired and repainted? Susan E. Kolb, MD an Atlanta based plastic surgeon thinks not. Dr. Kolb also believes that far from being a vain pursuit, plastic surgery can be a responsible way of caring for one’s emotional health. But before one gets the idea that cosmetic surgery junkies like Pamela Anderson Lee are emotionally balanced because of multiple esthetic surgeries, the caveat is that one must be the right candidate:

Says Plastic Surgeon Dr. Arthur Swift: "I see candidates who tell me, ‘well you know I am kind of depressed and I think this is going to be a pick me up.’ In this case, I won't go ahead."

"It is not a pick me up for depression. If anything it might even exacerbate the depression because what you are dealing with afterwards is a patient who expects to get off the operating table and have all their problems lifted off their shoulders."

However, for the right candidate, an operation can have tremoundous positive impact on their emotional health.

"We have a mental image of ourselves," says Kolb, "which is vital to our emotional and physical well being. If you think you are old and tired, you will eventually create this in the physical. Many of my patients simply wish to maintain that vibrant and healthy self-image in the physical."

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