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It would be difficult to ever envisage an article in an orthopedic journal with the title Should We Treat a Fractured Femur to Benefit a Patient's Health? It is obvious that we should; publications on fractured femurs are about how it is treated and not why doing so is healthcare. Likewise, we should try and treat psychological distress. Why then, the need for an article on the health benefits of surgically changing a patient's appearance? It is relatively rare to find articles in the lay press about “aesthetic surgery” but common to find ones about “cosmetic surgery.” There is no widely accepted explanation of the difference between the two.1,2 Many surgical associations have a definition of “cosmetic surgery” in their website patient information areas that is interchangeable with “aesthetic surgery.” The term “cosmetic surgery” is employed in this article only if it is relevant to the reference, otherwise “aesthetic surgery” is utilized.
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Michael Tyler (2025) studied this question.
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